CBS Reclaims Weekly Ratings Crown
Network now has won six of the first nine weeks of the 2009-10 season
Let CBS have its full schedule back, and suddenly it's in the lead once again.
CBS won the week in audience of its non-news, non-event programming earning an overnight average of a 7.0 rating/11 share, according to a study of Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co. That easily beat ABC, last week's winner, which managed a 6.2/10.
The Eye broke a four-week winning streak by CBS when it continued to run with mostly a full schedule heading into November sweeps, and picking up a 6.5/10 with 18 programs compared to the 6.4/11 from CBS, which had aired just nine shows that week.
It was a different story once sweeps started. CBS once again was able to boast the top-rated show of the week when "NCIS" earned an 11.7/18, 8 percent better than ABC's best "Dancing With the Stars" outing. CBS, however, only had four of the top 10 shows for the week with "The Mentalist" in fourth place with a 9.9/7, "NCIS: Los Angeles" in fifth, and "CSI" in sixth.
ABC had six shows in the top 10, including three installments of "Dancing With the Stars" as well as "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and "V."
With Fox deferring most of its original programming for the World Series, NBC was able to squeak out a third place win scoring a 4.2/7 on the back of 17 shows, while Fox was only able to crunch out a 4.0/6 with its two episodes of "So You Think You Can Dance," "Bones" and "Fringe."
The CW stayed mostly average with its 1.8/3, although it did get a season-best 2.6/4 from "America's Next Top Model," which tied with "Vampire Diaries" for the network's top spot.
So far this season, CBS continues to lead the pack with a 7.0/11 followed by ABC's 6.8/11. Fox and NBC are tied with a 4.2/7 while The CW is distantly behind with a 1.7/3.
ABC continues to carry Mondays (9.6/15) and Sundays (6.4/10), while CBS dominates the rest of the week, winning Tuesdays (10.3/17), Wednesdays (6.5/11), Thursdays (8.7/14) and Fridays (5.1/9).
CBS still has yet to have a single show finish below the 4.0 household mark, its lowest rating last week was from "Gary Unmarried," which had a 4.3/7. However, that was still better than five shows on ABC, 10 on NBC, and three of the four shows aired on Fox.
If ABC eliminated the poor ratings of "Eastwick," it would move up 0.1 ratings point. If it were to eliminate all of its shows under the 4.0 HH, it would just beat CBS with a 7.1 average HH.
Top 10 Network Shows -- [Audience Loyalty Index rating]
1. (-) NCIS (CBS) -- 11.7/18 -- [94.5]
2. (1) Dancing With the Stars (ABC) -- 10.8/16 -- [94.2]
3. (2) "Dancing With the Stars (ABC) -- 10.5/16 -- [97.3]
4. (3) The Mentalist (CBS) -- 9.9/17 -- [94.9]
5. (-) NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS) -- 9.5/15 -- [91.1]
6. (5) CSI -- 9.4/15 -- [96.9]
7. (4) Dancing With the Stars (ABC) -- 9.3/14 -- [85.0]
8. (7) Grey's Anatomy (ABC) -- 8.9/14 -- [86.4]
9. (6) Desperate Housewives (ABC) -- 8.7/13 -- [95.6]
10. (-) V -- 8.5/13 -- [100.0]
Top Networks -- [ALI]
1. (2) CBS -- 7.0/11 -- [59.8]
2.(1) ABC -- 6.2/10 -- [57.4]
3. (3) NBC -- 4.2/7 -- [72.4]
4. (4) Fox -- 4.0/6 -- [76.9]
5. (5) The CW -- 1.8/3 -- [69.2]
Data collected from The Nielsen Co., as distributed by Zap2it. BlipNetwork tracks non-news, non-event programming, and figures for this story reflect airing of new episodes only. For more information on the Audience Loyalty Index, click here.
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