TV Ratings: Jack Bauer, Law & Order Say Goodbye , Chuck Sees New Low

By
Robert Seidman
– May 25, 2010Posted in: '
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Scoreboard CBS ABC FOX NBC Uni CW
Adults 18-49: Rating/Share 3.9/11 3.2/9 2.7/8 1.8/5 1.7/5 0.3/1
Adults 18-34: Rating/Share 3.0/9 2.5/8 2.2/7 1.3/4 1.8/6 0.4/1
Total Viewers (million) 11.89 12.49 8.85 5.91 4.17 .73

CBS easily won the final Monday night of the TV season with adults 18-49, and was tops with adults 18-34, too.  ABC was Monday’s most-watched network.

Jack Bauer and 24 said goodbye to television averaging a 2.7 with adults 18-49 from 8p-10p and 8.85 million viewers.  At 10pm fewer showed up for the Law & Order finale which averaged a 1.9 rating with the 18-49 crowd and 7.6 million viewers overall.  TNT is still rumored to be considering picking up the show for a final, record-breaking season.  My guess is that if you don’t hear an announcement about that by next Monday, you probably never will.

Though the two hour season finale of Chuck averaged a 1.8 rating with adults 18-49 from 8p-10p,  from 8p-9p it had a series low 1.7 rating.

Last night’s Dancing with the Stars was down very slightly from last week and saw its lowest-rated performance show of the season.  Though the two hour premiere of The Bachelorette was solid with a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating and 13.7  million viewers between 9p-11p, but that was a new low for a premiere of the series and was down 7% with adults 18-49 from last year’s premiere .

All CBS comedies were up versus last week with the exception of The Big Bang Theory which heads to Thursdays at 8pm next season. It was down slightly from last Monday though it was up 41% from last season’s finale when it aired Mondays at 8pm.  CSI: Miami was up more than 10% versus last week, but down more than 10% from last year’s season finale.  Next season it moves to Sundays.

Late night info is below the primetime data.

Nielsen overnight ratings for Monday, May 24, 2010:

Time Net Show 18-49 Rating/Share Viewers (Millons)
8:00 ABC Dancing With the Stars 4.0/12 19.08
CBS How I Met Your Mother (Season Finale) 3.5/11 8.18
FOX 24 (Season/Series Finale) 2.6/8 8.39
NBC Chuck (Season Finale) 1.7/5 4.96
CW Gossip Girl (R) 0.4/1 0.90
8:30 CBS Rules of Engagement (Season Finale) 3.3/9 8.23
9:00 CBS Two and a Half Men (Season Finale) 5.0/13 15.37
ABC The Bachelorette (Season Premiere) 2.9/8 9.94
FOX 24 (Season/Series Finale) 2.9/7 9.31
NBC Chuck (Season Finale) 1.8/5 5.16
CW One Tree Hill (R) 0.2/1 0.57
9:30 CBS The Big Bang Theory (Season Finale) 5.2/13 14.78
10:00 CBS CSI: Miami (Season Finale) 3.3/9 12.39
ABC The Bachelorette (Season Premiere) 2.8/8 8.43
NBC Law & Order (Series Finale?) 1.9/5 7.60

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In Late-Night Metered Markets Monday night (via NBC press notes):

  • “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (3.0/8 in metered-market households) out-delivered CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (2.7/7) and ABC’s combination of “Nightline (3.2/7) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (1.5/5) in Nielsen’s 56 metered markets.
  • In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 results were: “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” 1.1/5; “Late Show,” 0.8/3; “Nightline,” 1.2/5; and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” 0.6/3.
  • At 12:35 a.m., “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” (1.2/4 in metered-market households) trailed CBS’s “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” (1.4/5).  In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, “Late Night” (0.5/3 in 18-49) topped “Late Late Show” (0.4/3).
  • At 1:35 a.m., Last Call with Carson Daly” averaged a 0.8/3 in metered-market households and a 0.3/3 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with

You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.

All numbers are Live+SD.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

Definitions:

*Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.

Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.

Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)

Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.

For more information see Numbers 101.