Compelling Television: Ratings and Scheduling

Fast affiliate ratings from PI Feedback:Fox moved into the 9-10 p.m. winner’s circle with the season-finale of House at 16.16 million viewers and a 5.7/14 among adults 18-49. I'm sure that was helped a little by DwtS ending at 9(-ish) instead of 9:30. For comparison: DwtS (8-9) - 18.84M viewers, 4.3/12 A18-49 CSI:Miami (10-11) - 16.07M viewers, 4.4/12 A18-49 Also, some dvr numbers from TV by the Numbers for the week ending May 4th (i.e. the week "No More Mr. Nice Guy" aired, 1st new episode Mondays @ 9p): Live Viewing: 13.232M viewers Live+SD: 14.641M viewers Live+7: 16.754M viewers only the Idol performance show and Grey's had more DVR viewers.

Full season rankings from The Hollywood Reporter: Teens: 4th (behind AI Tues, AI Wed, and Moment of Truth) A18-34: 3rd (6.7/17, behind AI Tues and AI Wed) A18-49: 4th (6.7/16, behind AI Tues, AI Wed, and Desperate Housewives) A25-54: 4th (7.7/17, behind AI Tues, AI Wed, Desperate Housewives) Total viewers: 16.8M, which looks like 9th, behind 2 AI, 4 DwtS, Desperate Housewives, and CSI. The House averages must include both the Tues and Mon episodes (and the post Superbowl ep?) since the Mon episodes aren't called out separately on the chart.

So, thanks to House and American Idol, Fox has 3 of the top 4 shows overall and in all the key marketing demographics (and all 3 top shows for Age 18-34). Rupert must be very, very happy.

Rupert must be very, very happy. And that is the fly in the ointment about the whole thing. How much would Hugh have bet back in the Fry & Laurie days when they did that Rupert/Wonderful Life takeoff that he'd end up a huge, huge star in America in one of the top shows on one of RM's networks? Life does have a wicked sense of humor about it sometimes...

Late to the party on the change of schedule for House, and I'm not happy. 8 p.m. is just too early for this show. 8 p.m. is 7 p.m. Central and Mountain time, not sure when Pacific. I'm trying to imagine the donkey show dialogue on a 7 p.m. show. Do they even allow shows where almost every ep is preceded by that "Viewer discretion is advised" warning in the 8/7 hour? I'm also not on board for the shift to another day when AI starts. Changing to a new day hasn't been helpful to the show in the post-strike period. TV viewers are creatures of habit. A show in its 5th season has to fight against so many factors, and making it hard for viewers to find just doesn't help. Yes, I know I posted along these lines before and most people replying said I was wrong, that the Monday slot didn't hurt, that all shows were down post-strike. I feel differently. The posters on the PI Feedback forums saw the ratings as a negative, a failure, for House. The ratings I've seen for the other big scripted dramas looked closer to their normal than House's. I don't want the show on Mondays in January, going up against the DwtS performance shows, and Wednesday seems to be the kiss of death for dramas. I would actually rather see the old schedule of House at 9 p.m. Tuesdays all season, with a few weeks off when AI is a 2-hour show. To me, that works better all around. It certainly paid off in ratings in prior years. I might even go so far as to theorize that taking House off Tuesdays hurt AI. I think they made for a great one-two punch, and a popular pairing with many viewers. Anyway, I just hope Fox reconsiders this scheduling. They may not be disrespecting the show, but IMO they sure aren't treating it like their highest rated drama.

Well, I for one am glad it will be earlier - but that is just for my situation. I have to be at work by 7:00 am each morning, and I live on the East Coast. Furthermore, my job is highly stressful emotionally and physically, so I am usually totally wiped by 8:30 and in bed by 9:00. It will be nice to actually be able to see the show in "real time" and respond to it when it is still fresh in the minds of other viewers, as opposed to having to watch it a day later all the time. But again, that is just my situation. I don't know about parents worrying about what their kids might see on the show. I work with kids, and I *wish* more parents took some responsibility for controlling the media content their kids are exposed to...but the number of eight year olds who are more than a little familiar with Grand theft Auto leads me to believe it is not a priority with a lot of folks. As to ratings...wasn't House one of the top three or four shows last week? Hardly sounds like a "failure" to me, unless the only thing acceptable is number one. I think it was much more damaging when it kept bouncing all over the place and being bumped by AI. I know there were a couple other viewers at work who missed several episodes because they didn't know when the show was coming on, and unlike me didn't make the effort to keep up with the schedule. If the spin-off news is true, then I do think Fox is treating it like there highest rated drama - they are hoping it is strong enough to launch another show... a high rated show isn't going to be given the preferential time slot treatment because they are going to assume it will hold its own no matter when they show it. that might not be true, but for now, it appears to be doing fine. Fox is hardly going to dump a show that is consistently top ten or even top twenty. And I am no fan of AI. Can't stand that show. (shudder) It ran over several times and screwed up my taping of House... I am not sure one can extrapolate things post strike because every show was affected, not just House. So, I guess I am not as worried about the schedule change. But I do understand why some may be. I suspect that scheduling was one of the factors that helped sink LOST.

DP (Double post) sorry....

Futon Critic is now listing Sep 2, 8pm as the projected starting date for House's new season.

List of top 20 prime-time shows in Nielsen ratings Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for May 19-25. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation. 1. (2) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 31.66 million viewers. 2. (1) "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 27.06 million viewers. 3. (6) "Dancing With The Stars" (Tuesday), ABC, 20.12 million viewers. 4. (4) "Dancing With The Stars" (Monday), ABC, 19.22 million viewers. 5. (10) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 18.09 million viewers. 6. (14) "NCIS," CBS, 16.52 million viewers. 7. (14) "House," Fox, 16.36 million viewers. NCIS over House? Huh? At least House beat CSi Miami.

IIRC, NCIS and non-post-Idol House were getting basically the same #total viewers both last year and this year. House gets a much higher rating among A18-49 though. The other thing I find interesting about the ratings is that House is usually a bit farther down the list when ranked by #households rather than #viewers. Apparently relatively more people watch House in groups.

I believe NCIS has been holding it's own against AI for at least 2 seasons now.

More breakdown in the season ratings list from "Entertainment Weekly" (I also posted this in the season four general discussion thread.) "House" finished the season in seventh place overall, and at number three for viewers age 18-49, with an average of 17.6 million viewers. It was the second highest scripted show on the air, just behind "Desperate Housewives" at number six. ("DH" was ranked number 4 in the 18-49 demo, and the two "American Idols" were the first and second in that demo as well as first and second overall.) There was a 10 percent drop in viewers, but almost every show had a viewership drop, so no impact in the overall ratings. ("Desperate Housewives, and the results show of "Dancing With the Stars" both saw slight increases -- 3 percent and 1 percent -- while, oddly enough, the actual dancing half of "DWTS" dropped 2 percent.) For comparison on the viewership drop with House. "CSI" was down 18 percent, "NCIS" was down 2 percent (NCIS also ranks 62nd in the 18-49 demographic. Ouch.) "Grays Anatomy" was down 20 percent and "CSI Miami" was down 19 percent. And one more set of numbers, 15 percent of "House" viewers watch it via DVR. That compares to 22 percent on DVR for "Heroes" and 20 percent DVR use for "Lost."

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