Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for CBS (NFL overrun), NBC (Golden Globes) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults 18-49: Rating/Share | 5.1/13 | 4.1/10 | 2.9/7 | 2.5/6 | 0.9/2 |
| Adults 18-34: Rating/Share | 3.7/11 | 3.6/10 | 2.1/6 | 2.0/6 | 0.9/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 17.800 | 12.952 | 9.160 | 8.267 | 2.375 |
Nobody beats playoff football, not even rain soaked celebrities, as CBS won Sunday night on the overwhelming boost by the Jets/Chargers NFL Football playoff game in the first hour of primetime. While the 67th Golden Globes topped the primetime ratings from 8:30-11, their preliminary ratings were down 4% from last year to a 4.7 rating for adults 18-49. Note that this is the first year that the Golden Globes were aired live in all time zones, so those preliminary results are subject to more than typical revision.
Update: So much for relying on the preliminary non-time zone adjusted numbers for historical comparisons. With the time-zone adjusted (and likely very close to the final) numbers in the 67th Golden Globes scored a 5.4 adults 18-49 rating which was up 10% from the 4.9 rating last year. It's average viewership hit 16.9 million, up 14% from last year's 14.9 million, but still well down from most recent pre-strike years.
The series premiere of Fox's Human Target was at least reasonably near the scoring rings with a 2.9 adults 18-49 rating. How it does in its regular timeslot will determine its future though. The return of Jack Bauer and 24 came in with a 3.8 adults 18-49 rating, down 12% from last season's premiere. How much of that decline is due to Fox extending into the 10pm hour last night is hard to say.
Against the female demo targeted Golden Globes, ABC's dramas were pushed down to series low original episode ratings, with Desperate Housewives 3.7 rating down 21% from last week, and Brothers & Sisters' 2.7 rating down 23% from last week. Housewives was down 27% from the episode that aired opposite, and out-rated, the Golden Globes in 2009.
CBS' AFC Divisional Playoff game between the Jets and the Chargers and its post game extended to 8:07pm Eastern. When I get better data on the game later today I will post it here. The game appeared to give big boosts to the rest of the CBS lineup, but because of the timing comparing the preliminary results may be misleading.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (million) |
| 7:00 | CBS | NFL Football: NY Jets v. San Diego | 10.8 | 30 | 32.585 |
| NBC | 2010 Golden Globe Red Carpet | 2.3 | 6 | 9.134 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 1.5 | 4 | 6.841 | |
| FOX | 24 (repeat) | 1.1 | 3 | 3.639 | |
| 7:30 | CBS | NFL Football: NY Jets v. San Diego | 11.8 | 31 | 35.806 |
| NBC | 2010 Golden Globe Red Carpet | 2.5 | 7 | 9.621 | |
| ABC | America's Funniest Home Videos | 1.9 | 5 | 7.810 | |
| FOX | 24 (repeat) | 1.2 | 3 | 3.828 | |
| 8:00 | CBS | 60 Minutes | 5.1 | 13 | 18.192 |
| NBC | 67th Golden Globe Awards | 4.7 | 12 | 14.813 | |
| FOX | Human Target (premiere) | 2.7 | 7 | 9.612 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (repeat) | 1.5 | 4 | 5.991 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | 67th Golden Globe Awards | 5.1 | 13 | 15.427 |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | 3.8 | 9 | 15.242 | |
| FOX | Human Target (premiere) | 3.1 | 8 | 10.562 | |
| ABC | Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (repeat) | 2.0 | 5 | 6.971 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | 67th Golden Globe Awards | 4.8 | 12 | 14.767 |
| FOX | 24 (premiere) | 4.0 | 9 | 11.810 | |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 3.6 | 9 | 11.018 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.6 | 6 | 11.027 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | 67th Golden Globe Awards | 4.4 | 10 | 13.481 |
| ABC | Desperate Housewives | 3.8 | 9 | 11.406 | |
| FOX | 24 (premiere) | 3.8 | 9 | 11.186 | |
| CBS | Cold Case | 2.3 | 6 | 10.386 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | 67th Golden Globe Awards | 4.6 | 11 | 13.342 |
| FOX | 24 (premiere) | 3.9 | 10 | 11.489 | |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 2.8 | 7 | 8.423 | |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) | 2.1 | 5 | 9.695 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | 67th Golden Globe Awards | 4.4 | 12 | 13.034 |
| FOX | 24 (premiere) | 3.8 | 10 | 11.156 | |
| ABC | Brothers & Sisters | 2.5 | 7 | 7.675 | |
| CBS | NCIS (repeat) | 2.0 | 5 | 9.470 |
-
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 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 and Numbers 102.
I’m kind of surprised that Fox pitted the 24 premiere against Football and Golden Globes :/
Oh silly me football was over by then. Ignore my comment
OMG Desperate Housewives crashed. ABC could not be happy at all with these ratings. It could be because Extreme Makeover was a repeat. Hopefully it will bounce back in 2 weeks.
@AHH,
FOX didn’t plan on pitting 24 (and Human Target) against football, they expected to get the late game yesterday, giving their shows a much higher lead-in.
24 did just fine. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this was the first time that a 24 premiere beat DH in 18-49. Human Target did well also considering it had essentially nothing as a lead-in.
All time low for Desperate Housewives! It’s never been that low before
and with the next episode airing in 2 weeks and not even a promo for the episode, I don’t see it doing much better then this.
Wait, does this mean that this week Private Practice beats Desperate Housewives?
rob: It was most certainly due to Golden Globes. I have no doubt it will bounce back in no time. Ditto for Brothers and Sisters.
Does anyone knows the last year numbers for the premiere of 24 ?
Human Target did decently. I caught a little of it, it seemed sort of entertaining in a late-night cable action movie sort of way. Who knows, it might catch on.
I know it had a lot more competition than usual, but…OUCH! for Desperate Housewives.
Season hihg for Cold Case and Series Low to Desperate Housewives + Brothers & Sisters.
Solid for Human Target.
Wow at Desperate Housewives. Really took it on the nose.
The Grammys are on the 31st, how do the Grammys usually do?
Holy cow, a 3.6 in the first half hour? :/ That’s scary, Housewives.
FOX Wins Week 17, Pending Football Finals
*****************************************
It was close, but in the end, FOX’s Sunday night preem of ’24′ gave it the margin of victory over CBS which had a surprisingly strong week fueled by two nights of primetime numbers for ‘NFL on CBS’.
And ‘The Golden Globe Awards’ propelled NBC from fourth into third place, handily beating the ABC line-up in every single half-hour 7-11 pm last night. To think that just a few seasons back, NBC moved ‘The Golden Globes’ to Monday, such was the fear of going up against ‘Desperate Housewives’.
Week 17 Preliminary Averages, January 11-17, 2009
Rank Network A18-49 P2+ Viewers
*******************************
1. FOX 4.6 12,396,000
2. CBS 4.4 15,532,000
3. NBC 2.2 7,108,000
4. ABC 2.1 6,454,000
5. UNI 1.4 3,802,000 (4 nights only)
6. CW 0.4 1,014,000
How about Cold Case, holding in there with real tough competition. Still too old skewing for CBS to keep it around; I’ll watch them all now since it’s surely on the way out. DH got smacked… yikes.
3.9 for 24 is lower than last year’s premiere? I though iseason 7 premiered at 3.6…
I guess this is okay for human target. An entertaining old school action show, I’m going to enjoy it. Anyway it will move behind Idol on Wednesday
last year 24 also premieres against Golden Globes & DH
2009 Half hour breakdown ratings STARTING 8PM
FOX 24 (season premiere) 12,845 4.4 10 3.8 10
FOX 24 (season premiere) 12,260 4.1 9 3.4 9
FOX 24 (season premiere) 12,685 4.2 9 3.4 9
FOX 24 (season premiere) 12,281 4.2 9 3.4 8
2010 STARTING 9PM
FOX 24 (premiere) 4.0 9 11.810
FOX 24 (premiere) 3.8 9 11.186
FOX 24 (premiere) 3.9 10 11.489
FOX 24 (premiere) 3.8 10 11.156
DH is also against golden globes, cc, 24 last year
2009
ABC Desperate Housewives 13,832 5.2 12 4.8 12
ABC Desperate Housewives 13,678 5.2 12 4.9 12
2010
ABC Desperate Housewives 3.8 9 11.406
ABC Desperate Housewives 3.8 9 11.406
Last season’s 24 premiere averaged a 4.3 adults 18-49 rating.
Edit: and I see oliver already beat me to the punch with more info.