or


[09/03/08 - 02:43 PM]
Primetime Ratings Report for the Week of August 25, 2008 (Based on National Live + Same Day Program Ratings)
ABC spins the numbers for the week of August 25-31.

[via press release from ABC]

Primetime Ratings Report For the week of August 25, 2008 (Based on National Live + Same Day Program Ratings)

ABC Posts Week-to-Week Increases in Viewers and Adults 18-49, Drawing its Best Numbers in 4 Weeks

ABC 3rd Season Premiere of "Saturday Night Football" Ranks as The Week's No. 1 Program in Men 18-49 and No. 2 in Men 18-34

ABC News' "20/20" is the Week's No. 1 Newsmag in Adults 18-49

On its First Regular Telecast Since July, ABC's "Wipeout" Stands as Tuesday's No. 2 TV Show in Adults 18-49 to NBC's Veteran "America's Got Talent"

For its Second Consecutive Original Airing in its New Time Slot, ABC's "Wanna Bet" Achieves Series Highs with Total Viewers and Adults 18-49

Audience for "ABC News Vote '08: Democratic National Convention" Coverage Grows from the First Night, Continuing to Outdraw CBS News' Convention Coverage

For its Second Consecutive Original Airing in its New Tuesday 9pmTime Slot, ABC's "Wanna Bet" Achieves Series Highs with Total Viewers and Adults 18-49

Thursday's "ABC News Vote '08: Democratic National Convention" is the Best Among All Broadcasters for the Week, Drawing ABC's Largest Audience at 10pm Since June

ABC Wins Saturday with the "Saturday Night Football" Season Premiere in Viewers and Across All Adult Demos, and is Up Over its Year-Ago Performance

WEEK No. 49:

During the week of August 25, 2008, ABC saw week-to-week increases of 14% in Total Viewers (4.1 million vs. 3.6 million) and by 8% in Adults 18-49 (1.3/4 vs. 1.2/3), posting the Net's best weekly performance in both measures in 4 weeks � since w/o 7/28/08.

Rankings: ABC claimed 3 of the week's Top 20 TV shows in Adults 18-49: "Wipeout" � No. 7, "Vote 2008: Democratic National Convention - THU" � No. 17 and "Saturday Night Football" �No. 18. The third season premiere of "Saturday Night Football" stood as the No. 1 program of the week in Men 18-49 and ranked as the No. 2 program in Men 18-34. ABC News aired TV's Top newsmagazine of the week in Adults 18-49 with Friday's "20/20."

A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating trends based on the Live + Same Day data stream may be somewhat distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped from 18% at the same point in 2006-07, up to 26% currently. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.

Tuesday

"Wipeout" (8:00-9:02 p.m.)

On its first regular original airing since July, following a 3-week break with the "Wipey Awards" (8/5) and two weeks of repeats against the Olympics (8/12 and 8/19), "Wipeout" took a strong second place to NBC's "America's Got Talent" in Adults 18-49 (2.3/7) at 8 o'clock. It was the No. 2 show of the night in the young adult demo (tied w/CBS' "Big Brother" and Fox's "House" in the 9:00 p.m. hour).

"Wanna Bet" (9:02-10:00 p.m.)

On it second original airing in its new time period, ABC's "Wanna Bet" achieved series highs in both Total Viewers (4.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.5/4). It was the show's second consecutive original airing to hit new highs on both Nielsen measures.

"ABC News Vote '08: The Democratic National Convention � Day 2" (10:00-11:13 p.m.)

With an average audience of 4.8 million viewers, ABC was the second-most-watched broadcaster in the 10 o'clock hour with "ABC News Vote '08: The Democratic National Convention � Day 2," outdrawing CBS News' coverage for the second night in a row, by 1 million viewers (3.8 million).

� Versus the opening night of the convention on Monday (8/25/08), ABC News' coverage jumped 14% in Total Viewers (4.8 million vs. 4.2 million) and 22% in Adults 18-49 (1.1/3 vs. 0.9/3).

Thursday

"ABC News Vote '08: The Democratic National Convention � Day 4" (10:00-11:07 p.m.)

ABC was the most-watched broadcaster (6.6 million) in the 10 o'clock hour with "ABC News Vote '08: The Democratic National Convention � Day 4," outperforming convention coverage on NBC by 8% (6.1 million) and CBS by 40% (4.7 million). In fact, ABC drew the largest audience for any of the broadcast networks covering the Democratic National Convention.

� With Night 4 drawing ABC's strongest numbers in Total Viewers (6.6 million) and Adults 18-49 (2.0/4) of convention coverage, ABC registered its highest numbers in the hour in viewers and young adults in 11 weeks � since 6/12/08.

Saturday

"Saturday Night Football: Alabama vs. Clemson and Michigan State vs. California" (8:00-11:00 p.m.)

The third season premiere of "Saturday Night Football," with games featuring Alabama vs. Clemson and Michigan State vs. California, took ABC to the top spot in Saturday prime in Total Viewers (5.7 million) and across each of the key adult demographics: Adults 18-34 (1.8/8), Adults 18-49 (1.9/7) and Adults 25-54 (2.2/7).

� Drawing it largest audience and highest young adult audience in Saturday prime in nearly 4 months (since 5/3/08), ABC was up by 16% in Total Viewers and by 6% in Adults 18-49 compared to the "Saturday Night Football" season premiere a year-ago (4.9 & 1.8/7 on 9/1/07).

Source: Nielsen Media Research (National Live+Same Day Program Ratings), week of 8/25/08, unless stated otherwise.





  [september 2008]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
 


· 20/20 (ABC)
· AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (NBC)
· BIG BROTHER (CBS)
· HOUSE (FOX)
· SATURDAY NIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL (ABC)
· WANNA BET? (ABC)
· WIPEOUT (TBS)





most recent ratings | view all posts
[08/26/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of August 18: "KPop Demon Hunters" Reigns as Netflix's Most Popular Film, Claims No. 1 in Top 10
"Wednesday" stayed on top of the English TV list for a third week with Wednesday Season 2, Part 1 claiming another 13.4 million views.

[08/26/25 - 08:24 AM]
"Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Capital One": Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees Draws ESPN's Second-Largest Audience of MLB Season: 2,572,000 Viewers
The game peaked with 2,889,000 viewers at 8:15 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen.

[08/20/25 - 11:07 AM]
Alicia Silverstone-Led Crime Drama "Irish Blood" Is the Biggest New Series Premiere in Acorn TV History
The August 11 premiere also drove the biggest day of subscriber sign-ups on Acorn TV's direct-to-consumer platforms in nearly two years.

[08/19/25 - 04:03 PM]
FX's "Alien: Earth" Premiere Episode Launches with 9.2 Million Views Globally After Six Days of Streaming
Future episodes of the eight-episode season will premiere each following Tuesday on Hulu beginning at 8 p.m. ET and on FX at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

[08/19/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of August 11: "Wednesday" Charms at No. 1 For Another Top 10 Week
"Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser," a three-part documentary exploring the reality show's biggest scandals, debuted at No. 2 in English TV with 7.5 million views.

[08/19/25 - 10:13 AM]
NBC Sports Delivers Most-Watched Premier League Opening Weekend in U.S., Headlined by Record-Setting Manchester United-Arsenal Match on NBC & Peacock
The Manchester United-Arsenal match on NBC, Peacock, and NBC Sports Digital platforms on Sunday, featuring 2024-25 PL runner-up Arsenal earning a 1-0 victory, averaged 2.0 million viewers.

[08/19/25 - 09:03 AM]
FOX Sports Delivers Network's Most-Watched NFL Preseason Game Since 2021
This past Sunday, 5.1 million viewers tuned in to FOX's preseason coverage of the Chicago Bears 38-0 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

[08/14/25 - 01:33 PM]
With 5 Million Cross-Platform U.S. Viewers in Its First Three Days, Sunday's Season Finale Episode of "The Gilded Age" Is the Fifth Consecutive Episode to Clinch a Series High
This season is well on track to become the most watched of the series.

[08/12/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of August 4: "Wednesday" Wins the Week - Season 2 Snaps Its Way to No. 1 in Top 10
Like the view from the top of El Capitan, "Untamed" held its place among the metaphorical clouds of the English TV List, now in the No. 3 spot with 7.2 million views.

[08/12/25 - 07:44 AM]
August 10 Edition of ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Capital One" Draws Nearly Two Million Viewers for Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals Game
The audience peaked with 2,115,000 viewers at 9:15 p.m. ET.

[08/08/25 - 09:10 AM]
"Live with Kelly and Mark" Notches Summertime Win with Best Total Viewer Audience in Over Three Months
In addition, the show earned its best rating among Households in nine weeks and its best numbers among both Women 18-49 and Women 25-54 in five weeks.

[08/05/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of July 28: "Happy Gilmore 2" Continues to Swing Big at No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
The Yosemite National Park-set thriller "Untamed" maintained the No. 1 spot on the English TV List for a third week with another 12.2 million views added to its accumulated 59.6 million total.

[08/05/25 - 11:01 AM]
ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" Featuring the Detroit Tigers vs. Philadelphia Phillies Averaged 2 Million Viewers - Up 72% from Last Year's Comparable Game
"Sunday Night Baseball" is averaging 1,680,000 million viewers, up seven percent from last year.

[08/05/25 - 10:27 AM]
ABC Airs One of Its Most-Watched WNBA Games This Season
The Indiana Fever's win over the Seattle Storm averaged 1.6 million viewers, peaking with 2.0 million.

[08/01/25 - 01:56 PM]
Matt Damon and Ken Jennings' Million Dollar Win Scores Big in Ratings for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"
The series owns ABC's top two entertainment telecasts in Total Viewers summer to date with its week 2 episode (4.46 million) and season premiere (4.24 million).