Nielsen Ratings: Wednesday January 10, 2007

An Osbourne, a Jackson, a Wee Man, Oh My! ARMED AND FAMOUS premiered at the top spot bolstering CBS to a top rank finish among the major networks last night.

It was a very level 8 oclock hour all things considered. Each of the major networks gathered between a 5 and 8 share, which is an unusually small window particularly with CW in the mix. It goes to show the beauty of GEEK for the freshman network which while still in last place, is closing the gap at least for one hour every seven days. In other news at 9pm last night PRESIDENT BUSH became number 1, 2, 3 and 4 and all it took was putting him on 80% of the networks to make it happen. ABCs new show KNIGHTS OF PROSPERITY came in third behind reruns of CRIMINAL MINDS & DEAL OR NO DEA despite celebrity cameos at every-turn, powerhouse EP’s such as Mick Jagger & David Letterman and, of course, actually being a funny show.

For the complete Nielsen Ratings from last night (18 – 49), 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.