Nielsen Ratings: Monday February 5, 2007

Why is PRISON BREAK losing out to DEAL OR NO DEAL? In fact, why is DEAL OR NO DEAL beating out any of the shows on at the 8 o’clock hour. At 830, the big shock was THE CLASS, despite tying shares for third place and pulling fourth in overall ratings, the show which critics loathe and no one claims to like was only 1 share off from second place in key demos. HEROES is firming itself as the winner opposite former powerhouse 24 which leads one to wonder if or when FOX may shift their schedule to take advantage of a strong show like 24. And at 10 o’clock….well, I’ve decided to no longer acknowledge CSI: MIAMI so as far as Im concerned STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP took first and all is well in the world.

For a complete Nielsen ratings breakdown from last night and to see which network won the 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