RATINGS SLIDE FOR RYAN, ROMNEY

Some 30.3 million people watched Mitt Romney deliver his acceptance speech on the closing night of the Republican National Convention in Tampa on 11 broadcast and cable networks Thursday, according to Nielsen Research. That figure was down 22 percent from the 38.9 million who watched the closing night of the RNC in 2008 when John […]

41.9 MILLION WATCH OLYMPICS’ OPENING CEREMONY

NBC’s strategy of forcing viewers to tune in to its delayed primetime telecast of the Olympics’ opening ceremony may have generated numerous complaints, but, in the end, it paid off in ratings gold. Reporting preliminary overnight results, Nielsen said today that the primetime portion of the telecast between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. averaged 41.92 […]

WHERE WERE ALL THE BELIEBERS?

Not even the likes of Justin Bieber can boost NBC’s ratings. His one-hour special, Justin Bieber: All Around the World attracted just 3.3 million viewers Wednesday night, roughly half the number who tuned in to Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance in the same hour (8-9:00 p.m.). On Tuesday, the fourth-game victory of the […]

CNN’S AUDIENCE PLUMMETS AS BROADCAST NETWORKS’ SOARS

A lot of people were watching television Tuesday night. The season finale of NCIS was the most watched, with 19.05 million viewers, according to final figures from Nielsen Research. Its sibling spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles captured 15.19 million viewers, despite airing opposite Dancing with the Stars with 13.23 million. America’s Got Talent, though down in […]

VIEWERS FLEEING NETWORK TV

Every broadcast television network has lost a significant number of viewers this season — particularly among the 18-49 age group that most advertisers target, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing figures from Nielsen Research. Fox, which airs American Idol, has lost an average of 709,000 viewers or 20 percent of its 18-49 demo. […]

IDOL NO LONGER INVULNERABLE

Fox’s American Idol remained the No. 1 show among viewers 18-49 this week, but among total adults, it had to settle for second place on Tuesday night — beaten by CBS’s long-running NCIS, which drew 18.20 million viewers versus American Idol‘s 16.11 million, according to Nielsen Research. On Wednesday, Idol‘s total viewership numbers increased to […]

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP DRAWS MASSIVE AUDIENCE

Sunday night’s primetime coverage of the NFC Championship game between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers on Fox averaged an extraordinary 52.73 million viewers, peaking in the first hour of primetime (7:00 p.m.) with 55.92 million, according to overnight figures released by Nielsen Research. Surprisingly, shows airing opposite the game were virtually […]

CNN LOSES IN IOWA

CNN, which ordinarily draws big ratings for live coverage of special events, saw its audience plunge Tuesday night for its coverage of the Iowa caucuses. According to Nielsen Research, total viewers dropped to 1.3 million — 41 percent below the 2.2 million viewers who tuned in a year ago. As it did last year, Fox […]

NICKELODEON: WHERE DID ALL THE KIDS GO?

When Viacom released its third-quarter results earlier this month, CEO Philippe Dauman described the steady loss of viewers at its Nickelodeon kids channel as “inexplicable.” Now new data from Nielsen Research showing a 1.7 percent overall rise in preteen TV viewers make the Nickelodeon losses appear even more inexplicable. Today’s (Tuesday) Wall Street Journal observes […]

MNF DRAWS 16.8 MILLION VIEWERS

ESPN’s Monday Night Football telecast drew an average of more than 16.8 million viewers, Nielsen Research said on Wednesday. The game, in which the Chicago Bears defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 30-24, topped not only everything else offered on cable TV — but on broadcast TV as well. (The highest-rated broadcast television show on Monday was […]

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