Numbers of Interest - Television Ratings for 9/13-9/18/09

Today marks the beginning of a new weekly post discussing notables in the TV ratings arena. A couple big shows came back this week, so there's lots to talk about. I'll do a day by day breakdown of anything that should interest people. I'm ignoring Saturday since it's dominated by Cops and America's Most Wanted, and no one really watches on Saturdays anyways. Just a little note, I'm using overnight data (live+same day DVR). The numbers will be the 18-49 demographic which is what the advertisers covet. Total viewership isn't that important, but if I see a skewed discrepancy between the 2, I will bring it up. 

Sunday (9/13)

ABC canceled Defying Gravity, and the last scheduled episode sucked with a .8 rating. NBC destroyed the competition expectedly with Sunday Night Football. King of the Hill bowed out with a respectable 2.9, low in comparison with previous seasons, but still the highest among scripted shows that night.

Monday (9/14)

The Jay Leno Show jumped into the 10 PM slot, and defied all expectations, mine included. I initially predicted at least a 3.5, but had no idea it would get a whopping 5.1. The final performance episode of American's Got Talent garnered a good 3.3. One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl season premieres met the CW standard getting 1.2 and 1.4 respectively. Gossip Girl did well with women which really is all the CW is looking for. They know nobody watches the network, so they target a specific demo.

Tuesday (9/15)

I have to start everything off with the Jay Leno Show. It's one of the biggest experiments and we had to keep a close eye on it. It had a huge 35% drop to 3.3 which is still amazing by NBC standards, especially for 10. With one week until the season premiere, NCIS repeated strongly with 2.4. 90210 and Melrose Place in their second episode this season continued to post low ratings with 1.2 and 1.0 respectively. I expect a Melrose Place cancelation at this rate.

Wednesday (9/16)

The Jay Leno Report continues with less than exciting news. He actually gained from the previous day to reach 3.4. Glee continued to be strong with 3.1 though there is a large gap between the demo and viewership which was only 6.64 million, much lower than the demo would indicate. This indicates the show doesn't have broad appeal, a high school dramedy musical not being typical viewing fare for retirees, so it could pose a problem to Fox. I don't see much opportunity for ratings growth though the current numbers are good. 

Thursday (9/17)

Leno continued to slip reaching a low of 2.7. I know it's too early but yesterday after seeing the ratings, I was ecstatic to see it go down. There were several season premieres this week. Bones on the new day got an impressive 3.0 while Fringe without the benefit of American Idol actually lost viewers to drop to 2.9. The Vampire Diaries continued it's success with the help of Twilight obsessed, television challenged females (I know I'm being silly and petty) getting 1.6, very high for CW standards. Supernatural didn't do too hot again, getting a measly 1.2, good for CW averages, but it is one of the best shows on TV right now and would get 2-3 times more viewers on another network. After crashing and burning last season, Parks and Recreations came back with 2.1, much better than it ended last season with. The Office season premiere was way down from last year, but managed to receive 4.0, still a very high number. The much anticipated series premiere of Community managed to keep most of The Office's viewers getting 3.7. I'm really happy about that and hope it can maintain those numbers.

Friday (9/18)

Leno fell again to 2.1 on a really bland Friday which NBC won handily with Dateline. There was nothing else on Friday, seriously. Remember, Dollhouse comes back next week at 9!!!! I'm such a shill for Joss Whedon...

Since this is new, any feedback would be welcome.