ratings

It was a relatively slow Monday evening on broadcast, with many viewers presumably tuning to ESPN for its coverage of the College Football Playoff national championship game. CBS claimed the night’s top show among viewers 18-49, an original episode of Mike & Molly, which posted a 2.1 rating in the demo at 8:30 p.m.. That was down slightly from a 2.2 last week. Meanwhile, ABC’s The Bachelor averaged a 1.7 rating in the demo from 8-10 p.m., off 23% from a 2.2 for last week’s three-hour premiere.

As fewer people are watching television live, networks are scrambling to find alternative ways to truly account for viewership — both live and delayed. Networks are finding ways to get around overnight ratings and make delayed viewing numbers more palatable to advertisers and audiences. Here are six ways the networks are fighting or spinning live ratings:

Facing much tougher competition appeared to hurt ABC’s new comedy Galavant. After debuting to solid numbers last week, the musical show took a hit Sunday night facing NBC’s Golden Globe Awards. Galavant averaged a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., that were delayed several hours by processing errors, off 35% from last week’s series premiere, which posted a 2.0.

Turner Broadcasting’s CNN, fusing efforts around in-home and out-of-home viewing, has received the blessing of the independent Media Rating Council. CNN’s viewing data of its special efforts, “CNN All Screen,” combines in-home and out-of-home TV viewing by “fusing” data from different samples — Nielsen’s National People Meter panel and local Portable People Meter (PPM) panels.

Media measurement company Rentrak has signed a multi-year agreement with Citadel Communications for its ABC-affiliate WLNE Providence, R.I. (DMA 53). The station becomes the second in Providence to use Rentrak’s […]

It’s certainly no secret media buyers have been frustrated by the slow pace at which Nielsen has begun measuring new media streams. Though second-screen viewing on smartphones and tablets has been growing at a rapid pace, the company only recently began measuring mobile viewership. John Morse, president and chief strategist at Byron Media, a media research consulting company, talks about what buyers really want, why it has taken so long for these changes to come about, and who stands to benefit from them.

American Idol posted a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating last night from 8 to 10 p.m., just a tenth below what its one-hour premiere drew on Wednesday night. That was down 23% from the 3.9 the show posted in its second evening last year, but the big declines are expected at this point for the program, which is in its 14th season. Idol lifted Fox to No. 1 on broadcast with the network’s best Thursday rating in a year, and it also finished as the No. 2 show of the night behind The Big Bang Theory, which drew a 4.5.

Recent sharp declines in cable network ratings — and overall lower TV usage — can be partly attributed to the steadily growing inclusion of broadband-only homes in the Nielsen TV sample. As broadband-only homes have risen, TV networks’ ratings have dropped.

The sports channel seized nine slots in the week’s Top 20, including the first- and second-place entries — college playoff games between Alabama and Ohio State, and the Oregon vs. Florida State clash. Both games drew more than 28 million viewers. Even without sports, CBS had a strong showing, seizing seven of the 20 slots thanks to its solid portfolio of dramas and comedies (and The Kennedy Center Honors special).

Fox’s monster promotional effort for the new drama Empire paid off. The show not only topped its American Idol lead-in, it also posted Fox’s best debut for any new series in three years. Empire averaged a 3.7 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., the best for any new Fox show since Touch premiered in January 2012. Empire built by 19% from the 8 p.m. season premiere of Idol, which posted a 3.1 at 8 p.m.

CBS President-CEO Les Moonves raged against the traditional ratings metrics on Wednesday during his Consumer Electronics Show keynote speech in Las Vegas. “Overnight ratings are worthless right now,” Moonves said. “We have to be more patient. Our information now coming from so many different places, over much longer time.”

Netflix remains committed to not releasing data regarding the viewership of its shows “for as long as we can,” Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told journalists at the kickoff of the semi-annual TV Critics Association press tour today. The streaming service has irritated reporters with its unwillingness to issue information regarding the metrics it uses to gauge the success of shows, and Sarandos held to that line, saying, “There’s no real business reason for us to report those numbers.”

Marvel’s Agent Carter didn’t have a super premiere, but it did give ABC gains in a troublesome timeslot. Carter’s debut averaged a 1.9 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., marking the network’s best rating with regularly scheduled programming in that slot in just over a year. Carter was up from a 1.7 for the most recent episode of sister show Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which usually airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday.  But Carter was down quite a bit from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s much-hyped debut in September 2013, which posted a 4.7.

Downton Abbey, the most popular drama in PBS history, returned to a near-record audience Sunday night. According to Nielsen preliminary estimates, the fifth-season premiere averaged about 10.1 million viewers from 10:15 to 11:15 p.m., just a smidge behind the show’s fourth-season opener a year ago (10.2 million). Among all networks, only CBS drew a larger audience during the time period.

After weeks of repeats and holiday specials, viewers were evidently ready for the return of regularly scheduled programming. The broadcast networks posted stronger ratings last night than on any Monday in weeks, with ABC and CBS tying for first place on a competitive night. ABC was boosted by the season premiere of The Bachelor, which drew a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 11 p.m. CBS’s scripted series all saw double-digit percentage gains from their last original episodes in December.

The Dallas Cowboys’ controversial 24-20 victory over the Detroit Lions Sunday evening on Fox boosted the network to huge ratings in primetime. The final half hour of the game, which sparked all sorts of ire on social media over a botched penalty call, averaged a 13.1 adults 18-49 rating at 7 p.m., and attracted more than 40 million viewers. The postgame wrap-up at 7:30 posted a 12.1 and 35.2 million viewers, giving Fox’s comedy lineup a huge lead-in.

CBS annual telecast of the Kennedy Center Honors went it alone on Tuesday night. The only original New Year’s Eve eve telecast across the broadcast networks, the two-hour fete improved from year. Between 9 and 11 p.m., the Washington, D.C., event averaged a 1.2 rating with adults 18-49 and 9.2 million viewers.

There’s not a whole lot to say about the final TV Monday of 2014. Between the five broadcast networks, there was only one original telecast: CBS’ Mike & Molly. The comedy fared pretty well without any of its neighbors. Overnights give it a 1.8 rating among adults 18-49 and 8.4 million viewers.

The season finale of Sunday Night Football carried NBC to another easy primetime ratings victory last night, while Fox started the night like gangbusters with the concluding quarter of its late-afternoon NFL game. 

The NBA was a gift to ABC on Christmas night. Airing the Cleveland-Miami game in the early evening, marking LeBron James’ first return to the American Airlines Arena since he left the Heat, the broadcast network saw a 12 percent boost from last year’s big holiday game. the game averaged a 5.5 in households — with the Miami victory giving that market a massive 17.2 rating, its highest local showing ever for a regular-season game.

More than a month of One Direction blanketing NBC and its sister networks culminated in Tuesday’s first-ever TV special for the band — and it wasn’t exactly a rousing ratings success. At 8 p.m., the one-hour special averaged a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.1 million viewers on NBC. The only original competition for the night came from ABC, which won the night with adults 18-49.

The fact that it was CBS’ lone new offering on Monday night didn’t hinder Mike & Molly. The newly returned comedy was steady with its last outing at 8:30 p.m., averaging a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49. It was the night’s highest-rated series across the broadcast networks, with almost all airing repeats.

The holiday doldrums are starting to set in… CBS was the lone network with any non-football originals on Sunday night — and even the NBC’s big game was down significantly from last week’s season highs. CBS, which saw primetime delayed by nearly an hour because of the NFL, saw a boosted 60 Minutes (1.9 adults) followed by steady outings of The Mentalist (1.3 adults) and CSI (1.2 adults). Undercover Boss (1.4 adults) was the only series to drop, shedding three-tenths of a point from last week’s episode.

Good Day New York is hosted by Greg Kelly and Rosanna Scotto and airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on Fox-owned WNYW New York. So far in 2014, the show is No. 1 among adults 18-49 with a 1.035 rating, beating out NBC’s Today Show (.917) and ABC’s Good Morning America (.825).

On a slow evening for broadcast, a repeat of The Big Bang Theory helped CBS to an easy primetime victory last night. Bang averaged a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m. It tied with lead-out Mom as the night’s top program on broadcast. Mom was down from last week’s series high but still posted a solid rating. In fact, CBS was the only Big Four network with shows above a 1.0 in the demo last night.

Survivor dominated Wednesday night with the show’s 29th season finale. Let that sit for a moment: 29 seasons and it is still the top-rated show of the night, albeit a night where there was not strong competition on broadcast. Survivor averaged a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m. That was even to last week and did mark the show’s lowest-rated finale in its very long history.

HBO is making a statement with a policy shift as of Jan. 1 to issue only ratings from Nielsen’s Live Plus 7 measure. That means no more next-day ratings report on HBO shows, at least not from HBO itself. The Live Plus Same Day numbers will still be available through Nielsen, and HBO’s competitors, but the pay cable giant aims to send a message about the growing importance of evaluating a show’s performance aafter viewers have had a week to catch up with a program on various platforms.

The season finale of NBC’s The Voice averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating from 9 to 11 p.m., its top Tuesday outing since Oct. 21. The show peaked with a 3.4 in its final half hour at 10:30, and it was easily the top-rated show on broadcast last night. It was down only a tenth from last May’s finale, though it was the show’s lowest-rated finale yet. Elsewhere last night, CBS’s NCIS was the top show in total viewers with 17.2 million. It averaged a 2.3 in 18-49s.

Fox, Tribune Media, and Univision are among the founders of NewCoin, which aims to fix measurement deficiencies in local television markets. Dallas will be the beta test site.

The first half of the season finale of The Voice was down from last year but up from last week. The NBC reality show posted a 2.9 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m. last night, up 16% from a 2.5 last week. It was easily the night’s top show. However, it was down from a 3.3 for part one of last fall’s season ender. The second half of the finale will air tonight at 9 p.m.

Anytime the Dallas Cowboys play on Sunday Night Football, it draws a big crowd, and it’s an especially large one when they play an NFC East rival. Last night’s game between the Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, the two best teams in the division, did not disappointment. The game on NBC posted a 14.9 household rating, SNF’s best rating since the first game of the season in week one.

Broadcast’s top comedy propelled CBS to an easy first-place finish among viewers 18-49 on Thursday night. The Big Bang Theory posted a 4.0 rating in 18-49s at 8 p.m., down slightly from a 4.1 for its last original episode but still easily the top-rated show of the night. As a comparison, the night’s No. 2 show was a distant second at a 2.8 rating, CBS’s Mom at 8:30 following Big Bang.

Survivor jumped in its final episode before next week’s finale. The long-running CBS reality program posted a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating last night at 8 p.m., up 14% from a season-low 2.1 last week. The show won its timeslot just ahead of ABC’s The Middle (2.2) and The Goldbergs (2.2), both of which surged from last week. Middle matched a season high, while Goldbergs soared 29% from last week.

It was a good night for holiday-themed specials in which the headlining stars wore very little clothing. CBS’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show lifted the network to a dominant win on Monday night. Victoria’s averaged a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating at 10 p.m., down a tenth from last year but easily the No. 1 program of the night on broadcast. Earlier in the night, at 8 p.m., Rudolph posted a 2.8, finishing well ahead of NBC’s competing The Voice, which slid to a series-low 2.2 against the added competition.

Mike & Molly came off the CBS bench last night, returning to the network’s schedule for the first time since last May’s finale with mixed results. The comedy was down sharply from last fall’s premiere. But it did retain most of its lead-in and do better than the show it replaced in the 8:30 p.m. timeslot, The Millers. Mike averaged a 1.8 adults 18-49 rating, down 31% from last fall’s premiere, which drew a 2.6. Elsewhere last night, NBC’s The Voice was once again the night’s top show with a 2.5 in 18-49s, though that was down 11% from last week and marked a season low.

Yes, Netflix is winning over a lot of television viewers — and digital media are taking dollars from broadcast and cable networks. But not to worry, CBS Chief Research Officer David Poltrack told the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference today in his annual business forecast.