Last week ended with good NUMBERS for CBS, which came in number one in nearly every hour of prime-time. The Friday ratings have fluctuated from week to week in terms of whos coming out on top, but this week once again GHOST WHISPERER took the top honor at 8pm. LAS VEGAS and CLOSE TO HOME were neck and neck but VEGAS hit the ratings jackpot just edging out the competition. CBS regained the top slot at 10pm as NUMBERS just edged out 20/20 and slid into number one.
For the complete Nielsen ratings breakdown from last night, stick around after the jump. . .
How do I read these ratings?
A Nielsen rating may look like this:
8pm - NBC - TVgasm The TV Show - 10.0/18
Focus on the 10.0/18. The RATING, 10.0, on the left represents the actual number of households that watched a show. One rating point equals 1,102,000 households. The SHARE, 18, on the right represents the show's proportion of the total households watching television at that time.
For example, TVgasms TV Show has a 10 rating/18 share. That means 11,020,000 households are tuned in to the show and 18% of all the households with a TV turned on are watching that show.
Ratings and Share are customarily broken down for various DEMOs -- a demographic grouping of viewers, like 18-49 adults or 2-12 children or 18-34 women, etc. Advertisers, and therefore networks, covet the 18-49 adult demo, and so tend to concentrate on that number.