Due to the nature of live sports programming the ratings for NBC (NFL Football) are approximate and subject to more than the typical adjustments in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
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Say what you will about Brett Favre, he’s ratings gold. The NFL Kickoff Game on Thursday night was the highest rated regular season primetime NFL game in 13 years in the preliminary metered market ratings.
Update: Here are the final ratings for the NBC shows last night:
NFL Opening Kick-Off Show (8pm, 30 minutes)
– 11.460 million viewers
– 7.4/14 HH
– 3.0/14 A18-49
NFL Pre-Kick (8:30pm, 12 minutes)
– 19.680 million viewers
– 12.0/21 HH
– 7.0/22 A18-49
NFL Thursday (8:42pm, 163 minutes)
– 27.485 million viewers
– 16.5/28 HH
– 10.7/30 A18-49
Outside of the NFL universe, the CW’s Vampire Diaries second season premiere scored a 1.6 adults 18-49 rating (that’s down 24% from the series premiere last year). While the series premiere of Nikita drew a 1.4 adults 18-49 rating, that’s identical to Supernatural’s season premiere in that timeslot last season.
In the youth demos that the CW focuses on Vampire Diaries scored a 2.8 rating for women 18-34 down 7% from last year’s series premiere, and a 1.9 for adults 18-34 (down 14%). Nikita scored a 1.9 for women 18-34 (up 12% from last season’s Supernatural premiere) and a 1.3 for adults 18-34 (down 13% from Supernatural).
My guess is that the CW’s emotions are mixed. They have to be reasonably happy with the Nikita numbers, but they cannot be happy with the Vampire Diaries numbers.
On ABC, the 2 hour season finale of Rookie Blue drew a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating, that’s up a tenth of a ratings point from last week’s series low 1.1 rating.
CBS’ Big Brother held up well vs. Favre, rising 9% to a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating from last Thursday.
For comparison purposes, on the Thursday night of the 2009 opening game (9/10/09) NBC averaged a 7.0 adults 18-49 rating from 8-11pm in the fast affiliate overnight ratings.
For comparison purposes, last year’s series premiere (9/10/09) of Vampire Diaries drew a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating, a 2.2 adults 18-34 rating, and a 3.0 women 18-34 rating. In the 9pm Thursday hour last year, Supernatural’s season premiere drew a 1.4 adults 18-49 rating, a 1.5 adults 18-34 rating, and a 1.7 women 18-34 rating.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (Millions) |
| 8:00 | NBC | NFL Opening Kickoff 2010 | 5.6 | 18 | 15.514 |
| CBS | Big Brother | 2.7 | 9 | 8.185 | |
| CW | The Vampire Diaries (premiere) | 1.6 | 5 | 3.275 | |
| ABC | Wipeout (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 5.159 | |
| FOX | Bones (repeat) | 1.0 | 3 | 4.361 | |
| 8:30 | NBC | NFL Football (Vikings v. Saints) | 8.2 | 23 | 22.566 |
| CBS | Big Brother | 2.3 | 7 | 7.247 | |
| CW | The Vampire Diaries (premiere) | 1.6 | 5 | 3.424 | |
| ABC | Wipeout (repeat) | 1.4 | 4 | 5.151 | |
| FOX | Bones (repeat) | 1.0 | 3 | 4.685 | |
| 9:00 | NBC | NFL Football (Vikings v. Saints) | 10.0 | 27 | 26.909 |
| CW | Nikita (series premiere) | 1.4 | 4 | 3.609 | |
| ABC | Rookie Blue (finale) | 1.3 | 3 | 5.012 | |
| CBS | CSI (repeat) | 1.2 | 3 | 6.018 | |
| FOX | Fringe (repeat) | 0.8 | 2 | 2.631 | |
| 9:30 | NBC | NFL Football (Vikings v. Saints) | 10.5 | 27 | 26.984 |
| CW | Nikita (series premiere) | 1.4 | 4 | 3.528 | |
| CBS | CSI (repeat) | 1.3 | 3 | 5.974 | |
| ABC | Rookie Blue (finale) | 1.2 | 3 | 4.959 | |
| FOX | Fringe (repeat) | 0.7 | 2 | 2.306 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | NFL Football (Vikings v. Saints) | 9.5 | 25 | 23.138 |
| CBS | The Mentalist (repeat) | 1.2 | 3 | 6.604 | |
| ABC | Rookie Blue (finale) | 1.1 | 3 | 4.696 | |
| 10:30 | NBC | NFL Football (Vikings v. Saints) | 9.1 | 25 | 22.312 |
| CBS | The Mentalist (repeat) | 1.1 | 3 | 6.673 | |
| ABC | Rookie Blue (finale) | 1.1 | 3 | 4.781 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
NOTE: All national ratings are “live plus same day” from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise indicated.
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
