>Airing on a special night (because of the World Series tonight), The X Factor scored another nightly victory for FOX with a 3.8 Adult 18-49 rating in the fast nationals.  Expect the rating to go up to a 3.9 or even 4.0 in the official nationals, which would put the Simon Cowell singing competition show […]

FOX ruled summer Wednesday yet again last night with a 2.4 preliminary Adults 18-49 rating for So You Think You Can Dance from 8-10 pm (down from a 2.7 last week and a 2.8 on the same night last year). It wasn’t like there was any competition on the other networks.  CBS finished a very weak second with a 1.1 […]

The MLK holiday will cause delays for national television ratings (live+same day cable and broadcast) for several days.  As a rule of thumb, national holidays that close banks, stock markets or post offices also impact Nielsen ratings. Expect similar delays for Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. This […]

FOX came in with a 3.2 Adult 18-49 rating for the MLB All-Star Game last night in the official nationals.  This was the lift we expected this morning from the fast nationals and proved to be enough to claim a rebound (albeit tiny) from an all-time low last year.  The news was not as good with viewers […]

On a night that featured gold medal victories for US women’s soccer, women’s water polo and men’s decathlon (none of which are particularly TV-friendly events), NBC Olympic coverage in prime time averaged a preliminary 6.8 Adult 18-49 rating, on track to be the lowest-rated night so far from London and lower than the same night […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There were significant adjustments (to the next tenth) for SHARK TANK, MACGYVER and WWE SMACKDOWN.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  Discovery’s GOLD RUSH was at 0.49/0.33/0.16 compared to last week’s 0.42/0.34/0.24.  ESPN’s NBA doubleheader was at 0.41/0.31.  On VH1, RUPAUL’S […]

The networks premiered their Wednesday nights last night (mostly), and they finished in the order we forecast back in May (FOX #1, CBS and ABC fighting for #2, and NBC a distant #4).  But three of the four networks are well below our predicted rating levels and well below the ratings from the Wednesday premiere […]

Saturday night’s grudge match between NCAA college football on ABC (Notre Dame at Oklahoma) ended up with a 2.9 rating with Adults 18-49, actually beating Game 3 of the World Series on FOX (San Francisco at Detroit) at a 2.8 rating. Among all viewers (aged 2 or over), older-skewing baseball had the edge, however.  Game […]