Week 1: Network Top 20/Cable Top 5

[bpatrick]

This was in today's USA Today. Oddly, unlike in past years, they don't have the network rankings, but here are the first week's network top 20 and cable top 5;
for legal reasons, I can't give you the number of viewers (I'm not a Nielsen subscriber) but they're in USA Today if anyone wants to look, as well as the complete night-by-night breakdowns.

1. Saints/Cowboys (NBC)
2. The Big Bang Theory (Monday 8:30) (CBS)
NCIS (CBS)
4. The Big Bang Theory (Monday 8 PM) (CBS)
5. NCIS: New Orleans (CBS)
6. Giants/Redskins (CBS)
7. How To Get Away With Murder (ABC)
8. Scorpion (CBS)
9. The Voice (Tue.) (NBC)
10. Football Night In America, Part 3 (NBC)
11. The Voice (Mon.) (NBC)
12. Dancing With The Stars (ABC)
13. Madam Secretary (CBS)
14. The Blacklist (NBC)
15. Scandal (ABC)
16. Modern Family (ABC)
17. The Good Wife (CBS)
18. Black-ish (ABC)
19. Blue Bloods (CBS)
20. Person Of Interest (CBS)

Cable's top 5:

1. Bears/Jets (ESPN)
2. Sons Of Anarchy (FX)
3. WWE Raw (Mon 8 PM) (USA)
4. WWE Raw (Mon 10 PM) (USA)
5. WWE Raw (Mon 9 PM) (USA)

Some notes: Fox's Family Guy/Simpsons crossover and Gotham scored well; the Family Guy/Simpsons crossover gave the network its biggest audience since January 2011, but Fox was the only one of the big four to be down vs. last year's opening week. ABC also got a good showing from its Once Upon A Time/Frozen crossover, and Scandal scored a series high.

Four new shows drew 10 million viewers or more: NCIS: New Orleans (CBS), How To Get Away With Murder (ABC), Scorpion (CBS), and Black-ish (ABC).

 

[KML0224]

And here I thought that The Big Bang Theory would lose numbers with the (temporary) move back to Mondays! Do the numbers which USA Today quotes include later viewing through the network's websites and/or DVR recording? So far, I've watched this season's episodes of The Big Bang Theory on CBS' website the next day, due to a disc in my DVD recorder not working properly. FOX apparently blocks recent episodes of their shows for a week. I found that out the hard way, since I was only able to see the first half of Family Guy as it aired in real time on Sunday. A couple of people had it up on youtube, so I just watched the rest of it there.

The next cable ratings I'll want to see are the baseball playoffs. I know TBS is carrying some of the post-season, but Comcast, conveniently enough, cut off the TBS feed I was was receiving with their basic cable converter a few days ago. (I've paid my bill in full with them for the last 16 years, for what that's worth.)

P.S. Can somebody tell me why WWE breaks each hour of WWE Raw down, like they were separate programs?

 

[CTListener]

The next cable ratings I'll want to see are the baseball playoffs. I know TBS is carrying some of the post-season, but Comcast, conveniently enough, cut off the TBS feed I was was receiving with their basic cable converter a few days ago. (I've paid my bill in full with them for the last 16 years, for what that's worth.)

Basic cable subscribers are a shrinking part of the cable universe. The vast majority of subscribers still have TBS on their boxes, and people who care enough about sports to watch out-of-market teams play postseason baseball likely upgraded beyond basic years ago.

P.S. Can somebody tell me why WWE breaks each hour of WWE Raw down, like they were separate programs?

I'd like to know the answer to that question, too. And what does it matter what WWE thinks its program is; isn't that Nielsen's right to decide?

 

[Avid Listener]

I'd like to know the answer to that question, too. And what does it matter what WWE thinks its program is; isn't that Nielsen's right to decide?

"Rights" have nothing to do with it. Nielsen is a for-profit corporation interested in making profit. If they make more money by splitting a three-hour WWE program into three one-hour programs, that's what they'll do. Incidentally, no one has kvetched about the one-hour back-to-back Big Bang Theory being split into two half-hours.