Close to 25 Million Viewers Tune-In for President Obama

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERFriday, July 24, 2009 Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:CBS Wins; Fox Poised for Victory Among Adults 18-49 Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not On the Air This Weekend:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time:There’s No Place Like Home_______________________________________________________________________ Note: The Programming Insider will be reporting live from The Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California effective on Thursday, July 30 through Friday, August 7. All regularly scheduled sections -- Prime Time Ratings, Ratings Box, On the Air Tonight, TV Tidbits and TV Trivia Time -- will return on Monday, August 17. But don't forget to click on PIFeedback.com for your daily dose of the fast affiliate ratings results, and other nuggets of note from The Press Tour. _______________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:CBS Wins; Fox Poised for Victory Among Adults 18-49 Thursday 7/23/09 HH Rtg/Shr CBS 4.8/ 9Fox 4.5/ 8NBC 2.4/ 4ABC 2.1/ 4CW 1.1/ 2 ---------- Note: Comparisons to the year-ago evening are not available. ---------- -Respectable Summer Performers:So You Think You Can Dance (Fox), CSI R (CBS), The Mentalist R (CBS) -Yesterday’s Losers (Excluding Repeats):Samantha Who? (ABC), The Listener (NBC) ---------- -Ratings Breakdown: CBS led this fourth Thursday in July in the overnights, but Fox is expected to dominate the evening among adults 18-49. In the distant No. 3 spot was NBC, followed by ABC and The CW. A repeat of Fox’s always reliable Bones won the 8 p.m. hour, with a 3.9 rating/7 share in the overnights. Second was CBS’ Big Brother 11 (3.4/ 6), followed by two more burn-off episodes of ABC sitcom Samantha Who? (avg. 2.5/ 5), repeats of NBC’s 30 Rock (2.5/ 5) and The Office (2.2/ 4), and a repeat of The CW’s Smallville (1.2/ 2), which moves into the Friday 8 p.m. anchor spot this fall. Big Brother may be a ratings disappointment this summer, but last night’s episode was truly explosive. SPOILER ALERT…Laura may be gone, but she is taking weasel Ronnie with her. Unless he wins POV this week, it is highly unlikely Ronnie can survive next week’s vote. Lesson to learn for Ronnie: conniving in the game is good (just ask Will Kirby), but not this soon. A repeat of CBS’ CSI and the live So You Think You Can Dance Results Show on Fox tied for first in the overnights at 9 p.m., each with a 5.1/ 9. But the dance competition will surely win the hour among adults 18-49. And speaking of So You Can Dance…SPOILER ALERT…so long, Jason and Janette. Tye Diorio’s choreography one day earlier clearly saved Ade and Melissa. Also airing from 9-10 p.m. were additional repeat episodes of NBC’s The Office (2.4/ 4) and 30 Rock (2.3/ 4), a repeat of Grey’s Anatomy on ABC (2.1/ 3), and a repeat of The CW’s Supernatural (1.0/ 2), which airs out of promising new entry The Vampire Diaries next season. Don’t you just hate the word repeat? As for the 9:30 p.m. telecast of 30 Rock, what was so spectacular about Jon Hamm to land an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series? While we are at it, why did overrated 30 Rock snag a record 22 nominations? CBS stood well above the competition at 10 p.m., with a repeat of The Mentalist (#1: 6.1/11) beating NBC’s The Listener (2.6/ 5) and a repeat of ABC’s Private Practice (1.7/ 3) combined by 42 percent in the overnights. The remaining original episodes of The Listener will be streamed at NBC.com in August. Next week, repeats of NBC granddaddy Law & Order steps into the 10 p.m. hour. As a reminder, here is what you will be seeing on Thursday next fall. Remember: just 59 days until that start of the new season. ABC 8:00 p.m. Flash Forward (new) 9:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy10:00 p.m. Private Practice CBS 8:00 p.m. Survivor: Samoa 9:00 p.m. CSI10:00 p.m. The Mentalist (new day and time) NBC 8:00 p.m. SNL Weekend Update / Community (new) 8:30 p.m. Parks and Recreation 9:00 p.m. The Office 9:30 p.m. 30 Rock (Community debuts here)10:00 p.m. The Jay Leno Show (new) Fox 8:00 p.m. Bones 9:00 p.m. Fringe (new day) CW 8:00 p.m. Vampire Diaries (new) 9:00 p.m. Supernatural Source: Nielsen Media Research data_______________________________________________________________________________ Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not -David Letterman Extends Late Night Total Viewer Winning Streak:Based on final national ratings for the week of July 13, CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman topped NBC’s The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien in total viewers for the second consecutive week. Letterman averaged 3.45 million viewers -- up by 17 percent from the year-ago week. Conan dipped to 2.71 million, a loss of a hefty 37 percent from Jay Leno one year earlier. Comparably, this is the first time Letterman has delivered more viewers than The Tonight Show for two weeks in a row since the Nagano Olympics in February 1998. Conan, in contrast, delivered its smallest audience since the premiere of The Late Show with David Letterman in August 1993. Demographically, dominant Conan continues to build among adults 18-34. But Letterman has narrowed the gap elsewhere as the new Tonight Show host continues to lose steam. Take a look: Adults 18-49:Conan: 1.0/ 5 (-17 percent from the year-ago week)Letterman: 0.8/ 3 (+14) Adults 25-54:Conan: 1.2/ 5 (-14)Letterman: 1.1/ 4 (+10) Adults 18-34:Conan: 1.0/ 5 (+25)Letterman: 0.5/ 2 (no change) --------------- -Speaking of Late Night:Also based on the week of July 13, ABC’s competing Jimmy Kimmel Live delivered its strongest performance in total viewers (1.45 million) and adults 18-49 (630,000) in five weeks, with its second-best numbers to-date this week. Kimmel outdelivered NBC’s competing Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in total viewers (1.45 vs. 1.27 million) for the first time ever, while narrowing the gap in aforementioned adults 18-49 (Fallon: 705,000, Kimmel: 630,000). -Final Results for President Obama’s Latest Speech:According to Nielsen Media Research, President Obama’s press conference on Wednesday, July 22, which was carried live on 11 networks from 8 p.m. to approximately 9 p.m. ET, totaled 24.68 million viewers with a combined household rating of a 16.3. The participating networks were ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC-A, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Telemundo and Univision. Source: Nielsen Media Research data________________________________________________________________________________ On the Air This Weekend:Prime-Time Programming Options Friday 7/24/09 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Surviving Suburbia 8:30 p.m. The Goode Family 9:00 p.m. According to Jim (R) 9:30 p.m. According to Jim (R)10:00 p.m. 20/20 CBS: 8:00 p.m. Ghost Whisperer (R) 9:00 p.m. Flashpoint (R)10:00 p.m. Numbers (R) NBC: 8:00 p.m. The Chopping Block (series finale) 9:00 p.m. Dateline (two hours) Fox: 8:00 p.m. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? 9:00 p.m. Mental CW: 8:00 p.m. Privileged (R) 9:00 p.m. Everybody Hates Chris (R) 9:30 p.m. The Game (R) MNTV 8:00 p.m. Friday Night Smackdown! --------------- Saturday 7/25/09 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Wipeout (R) 9:00 p.m. Castle (R)10:00 p.m. Dirty Sexy Money CBS: 8:00 p.m. The Unit (R) 9:00 p.m. 48 Hours Mystery (R)10:00 p.m. 48 Hours Mystery (R) NBC: 8:00 p.m. Kings (series finale) 9:00 p.m. Law & Order: Criminal Intent (R)10:00 p.m. Law & Order: SVU (R) Fox: 8:00 p.m. Cops 9:00 p.m. America’s Most Wanted --------------- Sunday 7/26/09 ABC: 7:00 p.m. America’s Funniest Home Videos (R) 8:00 p.m. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (R, two hours)10:00 p.m. Desperate Housewives (R) CBS: 7:00 p.m. 60 Minutes 8:00 p.m. Big Brother 9:00 p.m. Cold Case (R)10:00 p.m. Without a Trace (R) NBC: 7:00 p.m. Great American Road Trip (R) 8:00 p.m. Merlin 9:00 p.m. Miniseries: Storm (part one) Fox: 7:00 p.m. ‘Til Death (R) 7:30 p.m. American Dad (R) 8:00 p.m. Movie: Zoom CW: 7:00 p.m. Easy Money (return) 8:00 p.m. Sunday Movie: Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream (R)________________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -Spike TV to Rebroadcast NBC’s Meteor and The Storm:NBC summer miniseries Meteor, which concluded on July 19 with a lackluster 5.24 million viewers and a 1.2 rating/4 share among adults 18-49, and The Storm, which airs part one this Sunday, will be repeated on Spike TV. The male-driven cable network will re-air each four hour miniseries in late August in anticipation of upcoming original series Surviving Disaster, which debuts on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 10 p.m. ET. -ION Announces New Season Premiere Date:ION Television will roll-out its new fall line-up on Monday, Sept. 7 with a repeat of CBS’ Ghost Whisperer (which is scheduled Monday through Thursday in the 8 p.m. ET hour), followed by a repeat of CBS’ Criminal Minds at 9 p.m. ET and Canadian drama Durham County at 10 p.m. Back-to-back episodes of Criminal Minds will also air Tuesdays from 9-11 p.m., with single telecasts in the 10 p.m. hour on Wednesday and Friday. ___________________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Roseanne’s Companion What sitcom did Roseanne lead-out of when it first launched in the fall of 1988? Full House Growing PainsHead of the ClassThe Wonder YearsWho’s the Boss? The answer to yesterday’s trivia question… After The Andy Griffith Show and before Happy Days, Ron Howard (then Ronny) appeared in a short-live drama opposite Henry Fonda. What was the name of it? The Good LifeMr. Deeds Goes to TownSilent ForceThe Smith FamilyThe Texas Wheelers Is: d) The Smith Family, which aired on ABC from 1971 to 1972. -Current kudos goes to:Don Abel, Suzanne Ackley, Barbara Berman, Sid Cohen, Larry Collins, Tom Condosta, Audrey Davis, Reid Davis, Sue Doron, Jerry Gibbons, Maureen Goldman, Geoffrey Gordon, Barb Hemberger, Brad Hight, Bob Ingersoll, Deb Kainer, Synda Kollman, Patty Lynch, Bob Meyer, Jim Moore, Michael Murphy, Stephen Narissi, Bill Nuss, Alan Perris, Alex Petrilli, Jr., Gordon Purcell, Bob Rall, Con Rigg, Colleen Roth, David Ruckman, Marc Schwartz, Mark Simmons, Michelle Stanton, Bruce Starin, Michael Stern, Ronnie Tallant, Carol Teichman, Dave Weekley, Ted Zawislak

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Close to 25 Million Viewers Tune-In for President Obama

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