Nielsen Overnight TV Show Ratings

Ratings Thursday, September 4: NBC, NY Giants Win

Posted on 05 September 2008 by Bill Gorman

Scoreboard NBC CBS FOX ABC Uni CW
Total Viewers (million) 11.734 6.269 5.268 4.434 4.110 2.123
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 4.7/13 1.9/5 2.4/7 1.2/3 1.6/4 1.0/3
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 4.4/13 1.3/4 2.2/7 0.9/3 1.9/6 1.2/4

The NY Giants / Washington Redskins kickoff of the NFL season brought NBC a commanding win across the board with an average of 11.734 million viewers and a demo adults 18-49 4.7 rating / 13 share and a demo adults 18-34 4.4 rating / 13 share. Both of those averages were watered down by the convention coverage later. The prime-time portion of the game itself averaged 13.57 million viewers and a demo adults 18-49 5.4 rating / 15 share.

Opposite the NFL, the season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares with 5.27 million viewers and a demo adults 18-49 2.4 rating was down significantly from last season’s premiere (9/19/07) numbers of 6.61 million and demo 3.1/8 (per Berman). How it performs next week, without gridiron competition will be telling.

Football took a toll on Big Brother as well, its 6.457 million viewers and demo 18-49 2.3/7 was down about 1.25 million and 0.3 demo ratings points from last week. ABC and CW were all repeats.

The final night of the Republican National Convention drew 7.4% more average broadcast viewers than the Democrat’s final night, with 21.158 million average among NBC, ABC, CBS and Univision vs. 19.695 million for the Democrats last Thursday. Note that Univision again delivered more 18-34 adults to the convention broadcast than ABC and CBS. We should have cable news data for last night later today for comparison.

Full details:


Time Net Show Viewers Live+SD (Millons) 18-49 Rating/ Share 18-34 Rating/ Share
8:00 NBC NFL NY Giants/Washington (8-10p) 13.57 5.4/15 4.8/16 5.6/16
CBS Big Brother10 6.457 2.3/7 1.7/5
FOX Kitchen Nightmares 5.27 2.4/7 2.0/7 2.3/7
Uni Al Diablo Con los Guapos 4.729 1.8/5 2.3/8
ABC Ugly Betty (repeat) 4.152 1.0/3 0.9/3
CW 90210 (repeat) 2.12 1.0/3 1.2/4

9:00 CBS CSI (repeat) 7.274 1.9/5 1.2/3
Uni Fuego en la Sangre 4.549 1.8/5 2.0/6
ABC Grey’s Anatomy (repeat) 4.183 1.2/3 1.0/3

10:00 NBC Republican National Convention 8.064 3.2/8 2.8/8
CBS Republican National Convention 5.076 1.4/4 0.8/2
ABC Republican National Convention 4.966 1.4/4 0.9/3
Uni Gran Noche Republicana 3.052 1.3/3 1.4/4

Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. Source Marc Berman/Mediaweek.




Later on they will have the complete results.


Google Overnight Ratings the chart is easier to read there.

I don't believe Neilson for a minute, it's another corporation.

That figure does not include cable nets. Around 6PM EDT complete figures will be out. That will tell the total story.

This is not surprising since there was an NFL game on at same time.

The operative word there is "average". 38 million people watched Obama's speech alone, and the number above reflects viewership for the ENTIRE night AVERAGED. Which means less people watched that Republican train wreck.

I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing, because if they compared the two, one couldn't help but notice the utter LAMENESS of the Repuke convention.

Good point but I still don't believe them, they have a very weird way of picking families, in fact I knew some one who asked to be a family and was accepted. It should be random, which I'm sure it is mostly, but hey, even they want to protect their corp. interests.