Nielsen Ratings: Monday February 26, 2007

It was a black day for the Donnolleys last night as the freshman series with the HEROIC lead in couldnt hold its own losing 30% of viewers between HEROES and its premier and lost an additional 40% from the first half hour to the second. Heavy promotion and strong lead in did help bring eyes to the new show, but in the end it promo, and time slot can’t always be enough to launch a show. Not all is lost, those of us who remember the 1999 superbowl will remember the launch of a new series FAMILY GUY which despite incredible lead in and massive promo was cancelled after a couple short seasons only to return a few years later when the public demanded it. I’m not saying the BLACK DONNELLYS is a FAMILY GUY story. . . but good shows that dont work right away can sometimes have a second wind.

For the complete Nielsen ratings line up, 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.