NBC Primetime Ratings Hit Historic Low

NEW YORK — NBC set a low-water mark of historic proportions for TV viewership last week.

The network averaged 4.4 million prime-time viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

While it's not the smallest ever recorded by ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox, it's the smallest to come in a week outside of the summer doldrums of June, July, August or early September.

Only once before has NBC been lower, during August 2007, Nielsen said. The company's precise records go back to the advent of "people meters" in 1987, but given how dominant broadcast networks were before then, it's likely NBC hasn't had such a small audience since the early days of television.

The traditional TV season ended last Wednesday, meaning three days last week fell during the May ratings sweeps.

The first three days last week were dominated by the season conclusions of TV's two most popular series, Fox's "American Idol" and ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." NBC did the television equivalent of waving a white flag, airing shows like "Deal or No Deal" and "Most Outrageous Moments."

More specifically dedicated summer programming hasn't started yet, so it was an in-between week for the network.

Still, it's a sign of how hard NBC must work to get out of its rut. None of its prime-time programs last week reached even 7 million viewers. NBC's most popular prime-time show was "Law & Order: SVU," ranked No. 25 for the week. By contrast, Brian Williams' "Nightly News" averaged more than 7 million.

"American Idol" reached 28.8 million viewers for its crowning moment last week _ down from past season-enders but still enough to make the contest TV's most popular show by a comfortable margin.

That enabled Fox to win the weekly prime-time ratings, averaging 10.2 million viewers (5.9 rating, 11 share). CBS had 8.9 million viewers (5.7, 10), ABC 7.3 million (4.7, 8), NBC 4.4 million (3.0, 5), the CW 1.4 million (1.0, 2), My Network TV 1.3 million (0.9, 2) and ION Television 540,000 (0.4, 1)

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision had 3.4 million viewers (1.8, 3), Telemundo 1.2 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura 780,000 (0.4, 1) and Azteca 290,000 (0.2, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.3 million viewers (4.9, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 6.9 million (4.6, 10) and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.6 million viewers (3.9, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,145,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of May 18-24, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "American Idol," (Wednesday), Fox, 28.84, "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 23.82 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results" (ABC), 20.31 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 19.17 million; "The Mentalist," CBS, 16.82 million; "NCIS," CBS, 16.51 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 16.18 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.2 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.99 million; "Rules of Engagement," CBS, 12.87 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by General Electric Co. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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On the Net:

http://www.nielsenmedia.com

Comments

[lukebenward]

06:41 AM on 06/01/2009

(((A))) (((SPELLING))) (((BEE)))!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NBC lost (4th place) to the stuff that a light Saturday afternoon of viewing is _made_ _of_!!!!

So how's that hour of '30 Rock', 'The Office' and 'My Name Is Earl' workin' out for ya??????????? Yeah, they were repeats, but... YOU LOST OUT TO A SPELLING BEE!!!!!!!!

Even during a _new_ '30 Rock', Univision regularly out-preforms you!

[myub40]

10:24 PM on 05/30/2009

I miss must see TV on Thursdays...it was fun to rush home to catch all the shows...good old days....'come on NBC bring back family oriented stuff that made your station #1'. There are so many things going on today but if you can get shows that the entire family could sit down and enjoy, you will be back in the game again...remember these shows: - the golden girls, Frasier, Gimme a break, Amen, 227, The Cosby show, Cheers, Will & Grace, Sanford and Son, Night Court, Mad about you, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family ties, The facts of life, Empty Nest, A different world, Different Strokes, and for dram you had Miami Vice, Knight Rider, JAG, Hillstreet Blues, HIghway to Heaven, Fame, CHIPS, The A Team and many others. Now those days you could not stop me from watching NBC, but now i don't know half of the shows. Plese stick to the old formula and you will get your audience back.....that's my advice.

[tomsowell]

05:01 PM on 05/30/2009

They can start by iether fireing eveyone at MSNBC,or force them to report both sides of politics..i DONT CARE THAT THEY ARE LEFT LEANING,BUT COME ON

[solarian]

01:14 PM on 05/30/2009

good get rid of morning jokes and the sunday joke gregory republican and biased

[AdvancedDegree]

09:12 AM on 05/30/2009

nbc should first stop trying to bring back the glory days of comedies on thursday night and realize that the best shows on tv are one hour dramas. more importantly, not trying to look for really good and refreshing material is what started nbc's downfall in the first place. if you look at the original programming being shown on hbo, starz, and showtime, you will know that there is no dearth of good material, just small thinking by network execs. why didnt nbc put "monk", "the starter wife," "the 4400," or "in plain sight" in their lineup?

moving forward, nbc should try a little diversity in its programming and stop bouncing new shows that have promise around. secondly, they should just go for it. trying to relive the eighties and early nineties wont get them back on top; nbc needs to be forward thinking. but alas, nbc still doesnt have a clue to what its doing. the move to bring leno into primetime is going to be the final nail in their coffin.

i, for one, will only be watching "chuck" and heroes."

[113]

02:49 AM on 05/30/2009

there should keep Southland, that show is good and has potential to get better....the rest of nbc's primetime lineup sucks.

[Brian F]

09:05 PM on 05/29/2009

Would be interesting to see what kind of online numbers they have for their shows, though. I almost NEVER watch tv shows on an actual television anymore. What few shows i do watch (the daily show, the office, south park) I do so almost exclusively online. No ridiculous cable tv bill, not nearly as many commercials to sit through, and I can watch it all at my leisure.
TV, as we know it, is dead. The question shouldn't be "how can NBC boost their ratings?" Rather, it should be, "how can NBC best take full advantage of newer mediums that they absolutely must learn to deal with if they want to survive the coming generations?"
I do believe that they co-own Hulu, along with FOX. So, that's a step in the right direction.

[TainoBoy]

05:56 PM on 05/29/2009

There's still hope for NBC, we talking about only 1 percent of an "estimated 114.5 million TV homes" in the USA. I see room for growth for all the above networks.

[JakeMontero]

10:37 AM on 05/29/2009

I believe it really is simple. NBC shows are not very good.

Add poor quality programming with lack of any traditionally well watched sports (other than Sunday NFL and golf) and you have horrible ratings. It does not help that they (we) lost Tim Russert as well.

[cmdrgmh]

09:33 AM on 05/29/2009

L&O and Southland. Best shows on tv.

[RickyPoo]

12:23 AM on 05/29/2009

Here's what's killing NBC in two words:

No sports.

NBC has doubled down on having exclusive rights to the Olympics every two years. And that is killing them. There is simply no regularity to the biannual broadcast of the Summer or Winter games with the great familiarity with the opening of the major sports seasons. There are other sports decisions that NBC has made which are also disastrous:

They let the NBA get away.

They let MLB get away.

Folks, that's two of the fastest growing sports in popularity around the GLOBE!

They doubled down on college football by carrying Notre Dame home games exclusively right when the university started it's most embarrassing decline in decades. Has NBC Sports ever heard of the term "putting all your eggs in one basket?" Jeez Louise!

They just got Sunday night NFL games right when Madden retired. (Madden haters--feel free to flame me. He will be missed.)

Now, what has this to do with their prime time decline? Simple. Sports promotes prime time. Simple as that. It's cheap. It's easy. And it's a beautiful way to roll out your fall lineup. NBC denies themselves that every two years. And they now suffer for that.

[argyle]

09:28 PM on 05/28/2009

I don't buy the numbers anymore. Nielson tests .02% of the viewing households in America. I know it's a necessary illusion given the lack of a credible alternative, but can't we at least acknowledge that the "ratings" are a little silly?

[Mysticalsister]

08:46 PM on 05/28/2009

You mean to tell me that fans aren't watching every episode of 'law & order,' 'howie do it' and that stellar news magazine devoid of news -- 'dateline' -- night after boring night? shocking.
At least they had the decency to cancel Medium (so I can watch it on CBS instead).

No doubt NBC had to clear the decks for the genius idea of Jay Leno five nights a week.
That should be another lead balloon.

Attention TV Viewers: We can now officially skip NBC --
at least until the 'Office' returns with new episodes.

[3reddogs]

03:10 PM on 05/29/2009

Come to think of it, "Medium" is the only show on NBC that I never missed. Fridays at 9 on CBS will be even better than Mondays at 10 on NBC.

[leiss62185]

08:42 PM on 05/28/2009

They need to get some more new reality shows besides the biggest loser. What ever happened to that Chopping Block (cooking show)? It just seems they generate more viewers even though i personally don't care to much for them. I prefer the funnies like "The Office" and "30rock" but this season seemed to let me down not as good as previous seaons. But regardless they need to do something major! Get enough of the Law & Order it's getting old!

[JFaye]

07:47 PM on 05/28/2009

Don't care what NBC does other than DO NOT cancel Law and Order ...

[Mysticalsister]

08:48 PM on 05/28/2009

humorless, bland and lacking originality -- L&O will be on for decades since they can just trade and recycle scripts that the zombie fans won't remember anyway.

L&O is my idea of a cure for insomnia.