CBS Wins; ABC the Network to Beat Among Adults 18-49

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CBS Wins; ABC the Network to Beat Among Adults 18-49  

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Thursday, November 6, 2008):

Fox: +27, CBS: + 1, ABC: -12, CW: -23, NBC: -28

Survivor: Samoa (CBS), CSI (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), The Office (NBC), The Mentalist (CBS)

Community (NBC), Parks and Recreation (NBC), Fringe (Fox), The Jay Leno Show (NBC)

It was a clean overnight sweep for CBS, with a first-place finish in every half-hour care of Survivor: Samoa (6.3 rating/10 share), CSI (9.2/15) and The Mentalist (10.3/18), which remains a dramatic improvement over failed year-ago 10 p.m. occupant Eleventh Hour. If you did not see Survivor last night, you missed one of the greatest blindsides in the history of the show. Amazing how fresh this long-running reality/competition remains. 

No. 2 ABC trailed CBS by an average of 26 percent in the overnights, with a second-place finish in every half-hour with its line-up of FlashForward (5.9/ 9), which has settled in comfortably, Grey’s Anatomy (8.3/13) and Private Practice (5.8/ 8). Led by Grey’s Anatomy, ABC is always the network to beat among adults 18-49 on Thursday. 

Next up was Fox’s combination of Bones (#3: 5.1/ 8), which built by year-ago occupant Kitchen Nightmares (3.4/ 5 on Nov. 6, 2008) by 50 percent in the overnights, and Fringe (#4: 3.3/ 5), which has lost considerable steam in the highly competitive Thursday 9 p.m. hour. Fortunately, however, there remains great interest in Fringe among the DVR users. 

Other than The Office, which always scores among adults 18-49, there was little of note on NBC last night as follows:

8:30 p.m. Parks and Recreation: 3.1/ 5 (#4)

10:00 p.m. The Jay Leno Show: 3.4/ 6 (#3)

Overnight growth for The Office out of Parks and Recreation of a hefty 45 percent is clearly worth noting. But, personally speaking, last night’s episode was both overly mean-spirited and one of the worst I have ever seen. Poor Linda Purl…first the Fonz dumps her, now this!

Rounding off this first Thursday of the Nov. 2009 sweeps (yes…this is a sweeps period!) was scripted CW duo The Vampire Diaries (#5: 2.4/ 4) and Supernatural (#5: 1.7/ 3), which is holding about the same percentage of the lead-in than it did out of former occupant Smallville. 

Ratings Box:

Fox, of course, was hoping for a seven game baseball series. But the sixth, and final, World Series match-up between the Yankees and the Phillies rose to a series-high 22.66 million viewers and a 7.3 rating/20 share among adults 18-49, leading Fox to an easy Wednesday victory. Here were the network averages for Nov. 4:

Fox: 22.66 million, CBS: 10.34, NBC: 6.48, ABC: 5.96, CW: 2.61

Fox: 7.3 rating/20 share, CBS: 2.7/ 7, ABC: 2.1/ 5, NBC: 1.8/ 5, CW: 1.2/ 3  

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

TV Tidbits:

-More Dr. Phil:
While speculation looms on the future of Oprah, spin-off Dr. Phil has been cleared by CBS Television Distribution through the 2013-14 season in approximately 70 percent of the country despite significant audience erosion this season. Season to-date, Dr. Phil is down by 15 percent in household rating (3.3 to 2.8) as 25 percent among key women 25-54 (2.0 to 1.5).

-Speaking of First-Run Renewals:
The Tribune station group has picked-up NBC Universal’s trio of syndicated talkers -- Maury, The Jerry Springer Show and The Steve Wilkos Show -- through the 2011-12 season.

-Hallmark Channel Holiday Countdown:
Feel-good Hallmark Channel will offer more than 450 hours of upcoming holiday-themed programming in its Hallmark Channel Holiday Countdown. In addition to holiday-driven episodes of Cheers, The Golden Girls, MASH, Little House on the Prairie and Touched by an Angel, original movie titles will include The National Tree (Saturday, Nov. 28), Debbie Macomber’s Mrs. Miracle (Dec. 5), Christmas in Canaan (Dec. 12) and The Three Gifts (Dec. 19). Each movie is scheduled in the Saturday 8-10 p.m. block. Rounding off the season will be Hallmark Channel’s coverage of The 121^st Rose Parade. 

-Freshman Series Scorecard:

Here is an updated status of the primetime freshman class of 2009-10 by network, in order of airing.

-V (Tuesday 8:00 p.m. ET): 14.3 million viewers and a 5.2 rating/14 share among adults 18-49 is the best in the demo for any 8 p.m. drama (on any network) since ABC’s Lost on Sept. 22, 2004. 

-The Forgotten (Tuesday 10 p.m. ET): lackluster to-date; on the fence for additional episodes.

-Hank (Wednesday 8:00 p.m. ET): the cancellation clock is ticking.

-The Middle (Wednesday 8:30 p.m. ET): full season renewal despite ongoing lackluster performance.

-Modern Family (Wednesday 9:00 p.m. ET): full season renewal, bona fide young adult hit.

-Cougar Family (Wednesday 9:30 p.m. ET): full season renewal, but weakening retention out of Modern Family

-Eastwick (Wednesday 10:00 p.m. ET): the cancellation clock is ticking.

-FlashForward (Thursday 8:00 p.m. ET): full season renewal; new show-runner announced.

-Accidentally on Purpose (Monday 8:30 p.m. ET): five additional episodes ordered, bringing total to 18.

-NCIS: Los Angeles (Tuesday 9:00 p.m. ET): full season renewal, biggest new hit of the season.

-The Good Wife (Tuesday 10:00 p.m. ET): full season renewal; good retention out of NCIS: Los Angeles, but older skewing.

-Three Rivers (Sunday 9:00 p.m.): the cancellation clocking is ticking.

-Trauma (Monday 9:00 p.m. ET): second cancellation of the season.

-The Jay Leno Show (Monday to Friday 10:00 p.m. ET): third place finish on most nights; the biggest new failure of the season.

-Mercy (Wednesday 8:00 p.m.): full season renewal.

-Community (Thursday 8:00 p.m. ET): full season renewal despite lackluster performance.

-Glee (Wednesday 9:00 p.m. ET): full season renewal, season one DVD coming out on Dec. 29.

-Brothers (Friday 8:00 p.m. ET): moving to Sunday at 7 p.m. effective on Nov. 8.

-The Cleveland Show (Sunday 8:30 p.m. ET): renewed for two full seasons, builds regularly from The Simpsons lead-in.

-Melrose Place (Tuesday 9:00 p.m. ET): five additional episodes ordered; Heather Locklear returns on Nov. 17.

-The Beautiful Life (Wednesday 9:00 p.m. ET): first cancellation of the season.

-The Vampire Diaries (Thursday 8:00 p.m. ET): full season renewal; solid performer among young females.

Which one of the following actors introduced the first episode of long-running western Gunsmoke to the audience on Sept. 10, 1955?

a)      William Conrad

b)      Bing Crosby

c)      Henry Fonda

d)      Jimmy Stewart

e)      John Wayne

The answer to yesterday’s question…

Which character from long-running drama Knots Landing was killed off first?

a)      Ciji Dunne

b)      Sid Fairgate

c)      Chip Roberts

d)      Joshua Rush

e)      Laura Avery Sumner

Is: b) Sid Fairgate. When foolish Don Murray asked to be released from his contract, the writers sent good ‘ol Sid into a car with no brakes. By early in season three he was gone. Grab a hankie and click here to see how long-suffering wife Karen missed him.

Next was sexy singer Ciji (Lisa Hartman), who was killed by phony Chip (Michael Sabatino), who met his maker by accidentally falling onto a pitch fork at Gary’s ranch. Ouch! Preacher Joshua (Alec Baldwin) fell off a roof top after being screamed at by Mama Lilimae (Julie Harris -- you go, girl!), and long-time resident Laura (Constance McCashin), who was married to Greg Sumner (William Devane) at the time, died of a brain tumor. Needless to say, there was never a dull moment at Seaview Circle! 

-Current kudos goes to:
Mark Amato, Ed Beach, Gerry Bixenspan, Barbara Bloomfield, Larry Collins, Mark Condosta, Audrey Davis, Scott Dickson, Sue Doron, Mike Dugger, Arleen Fong, Jaime Grasso, Carolyn Becker Hayes, Bob Ingersoll, David Johnson, Kathryn Kieser, Mark Krause, Danny Leclair, James Maxim, Christopher Miele, Debbie Mirr, Mar Misiano, Anne Moynihan, Tony Naldrett, Greg Phelan, Michael Ratliffe, Lisa Tatum-Roehrig, Joe Rubi, Ron Salmon, Dewayne Snype, Andrew Stearn, Carol Teichman, John Wood