Nielsen Ratings: Tuesday January 9, 2007

The votes are in and the people chose not to watch THE PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS last night

favoring instead a rerun of HOUSE, which looks to be just what the doctor ordered for FOX in the 8 o’clock hour, peaking at 4.1 rating with an 11 share. But it was a double dosing of the good doctor and the 9 o’clock hour faired nearly twice as nice for the medical pimp with the limp pulling in an astounding 7.6 rating with a 19 share. Small night for BIG DAY on the alphabet network which pulled a puny 1.4 rating in key demos. LAW AND ORDER: SVU help solidify a second place showing on the night for the peacock with a very strong 5.2 rating and 15 share.

For the complete breakdown of last nights 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.