NEILSEN RATINGS: Tuesday November 28, 2006

Who is watching NCIS? Is this the JAG audience, or the EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND crowd? It seems these shows ratings are so big and yet I have never met anyone in person who actually watches them. NCIS had a huge showing last night, but was kept at bay in the second place spot by A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS which took the top spot for the 94th year in a row. HOUSE was just what the doctor ordered last night pulling in more than NBC & CBS combined (may be time to move LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT over to Fridays or back to Sundays. Emmy winner Mariska Harhddfgfassadseetay (Im pretty sure that’s how it’s spelled) returned to SVU alongside partner Stabler for the first time since helping the feds (read: having her baby) and was greeted with a warm viewer reception easily pulling NBC to the top post at the 10 o’clock hour . 8 o’clock belonged to ABC, 9pm was all about FOX and at 10 it went the way of NBC. So who won the night?

Check out after the jump for the complete Neilsen ratings from last night and the winning network (18-49 demo). . .

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.