Nielsen Ratings: Thursday, January 18th, 2007

With American Idol nowhere to be found, the other networks were able to come out and play last night. ABC held court with its one-two punch of Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy; although, CBS took the 10 PM hour with Shark. Billy + bushy hair and a ponytail = ratings success! NBC, meanwhile, did nicely with its “Comedy Night Done Right,” but quite honestly, given that there was a hilarious Office, a musical Scrubs, and two solid installments of My Name is Earl and 30 Rock, we really don’t know why the network can’t gain more traction on Thursdays. Damn you, Middle America!Nielsen Overnights
From Thursday, January 18, 2007
*Signifies repeat

Nielsen Fast Nationals
From Thursday, January 18, 2007
* Signifies repeat

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.