Nielsen Ratings: Sunday January 7, 2007

Bad night for NBC last night. The return of THE APPRENTICE failed to get the job done for the peacock network and the highly hyped and moderately anticipated GREASE: YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I WANT, had a bad opening night as well. While the numbers for each were fairly respectable on the surface, each show came in third in their respective time slots. . . for those keeping track, there are only 5 networks being tracked here and one is the CW, so that barely counts. A 3rd place finish in the key demos fairs poorly for each show out of the gates, but it should be noted that despite losing a ton of viewers to BROTHERS AND SISTERS, THE APPRENTICE: LA did manage to just barely squeak into first place for the final 30 minutes. Other shows with a strong showing last nightr AMERICAN DAD & FAMILY GUY, which both had a surprisingly strong second place standing on the night.

For the complete listing of last nights Nielsen ratings in key demos, 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.