TV Ratings: Old Shows Enjoy Hot Flashes

Veteran CBS crime shows, from CSI: NY to Criminal Minds, enjoy big premiere weeks while most other shows slump

Apparently Maw-Maw's getting in all her favorite crime stories before the daggummit digital conversion ruins everything.

That's one way of explaining how while most premiere-week shows were down from last year, an uncommon number of veteran CBS shows were up.

NCIS (18 million) added 4.1 million viewers over last fall; CSI: Miami (17.2 million) grew by 4.5 million. Criminal Minds (17 million) added 4.3 million to its ranks, while CSI: NY (14.6 million) scored 1.9 million more.

Even two comedy shows got into the act: Two and a Half Men (14.9 million), which was up by 1.3 million; and How I Met Your Mother (9.8 million), up by 1.7 million.

One CBS series that didn't get the memo was Without a Trace (11.3 million), which shed more viewers—5.4 million—than any returning show, save NBC's Heroes (10 million), which suffered a whopping 7 million desertions.

One of the only non-CBS shows to build from fall premiere to fall premiere was the week's No. 1 show, the Monday edition of ABC's Dancing With the Stars (21.3 million, up 100,000 viewers), which celebrated the debut of 82-year-old Cloris Leachman.

Who hopefully has that rabbit-ear thing all worked out.

Other ratings tidbits from the TV week ended Sunday:

• For the record, ABC, not CBS, was the week's most-watched network among mature-ish viewers, aged 25-54. That Cloris Leachman really can do anything, can't she?
• ABC's Desperate Housewives (18.7 million) was the most-watched scripted show, and was fairly consistent from premiere to premiere (it was down less than 1 million viewers).
• ABC's Grey's Anatomy (18.5 million) was the second most-watched scripted show, but was less firm with its grip on fans, losing 2.4 million from last fall's season opener.
• Slipping or no, Grey's was the No. 1 show among coveted 18 to 49-year-olds.
• Things looked better for Heroes in the young-adult rankings, where the former It show finished eighth behind that fresh, hot…well, Fox's House (12.4 million viewers overall).
• Things, by the way, didn't look better for Heroes last night, when it recorded its lowest-rated original episode ever.
• NBC's The Office began its fifth season in typical form: Middling overall numbers (9.4 million, down a touch from last fall's premiere); top 10-worthy 18-49 ratings.
• Here's hoping My Name Is Earl (6.4 million, down 2.3 million from last fall) doesn't have too many more items on its to-do list.
• Sarah Palin's been a boon to NBC's Saturday Night Live, where Tina Fey's latest dead-on take on the vice-presidential contender helped boost overnight ratings by nearly 50 percent over the same episode last year.
• Since the Fey sketch was based on, if not transcribed from, Katie Couric's Palin interview, it's only right that Couric get a ratings boost, too—and she did, albeit a little one. The moribund CBS Evening News averaged about 6 million viewers, up about 500,000 from the previous week.
  
• George W. Bush won, again. The President's prime-time address on the economy was watched by 52.7 million, edging Barack Obama and John McCain's first debate, which was caught by 52.4 million.
• CBS' The Mentalist (15.6 million) was TV's most-watched new show; Fox's banished Do Not Disturb (3.6 million) was the least-watched freshman series.
• CBS' Gary Unmarried (6.8 million) is thankful ABC's Opportunity Knocks (6.6 million) spared it, barely, from being the least-watched premiering new show on the big four networks.
• The Simpsons' Gunsmoke-tying season premiere (9.5 million) was on par with its regular-old 19th season premiere (9.6 million).
• After The Simpsons, the rest of Fox's Sunday animated comedy block held up okay, especially American Dad (6.9 million), which was up almost a million viewers from last fall.
• The CW's 90210 (2.9 million) was down about 2 million viewers from its premiere week. Three weeks ago.
• It could be that 90210 isn't slumping; it could be that its audience is crazy busy. According to the CW, among the network's prized young-women demographic, ratings for the Sept. 9 episode rose by 58 percent when a week's worth of DVR playbacks were added in.
• The full cable rankings were delayed, but this much was known: ESPN's Monday Night Football (11.9 million) is still kinda popular.
• Disney Channel's The Suite Life on Deck, a revamp/relaunch of the long-running The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, premiered Friday as "the net's most-watched non-[Disney Channel Original Movie]-premiere-driven original series on record," which is a very long way of saying a lot of people—5.7 million—watched.

ABC won the first week of the 2008-09 season in total viewers (12.3 million) and 18-to-49-year-olds (5 million).

CBS (11.3 million overall) was a close second in total viewers; NBC (8.3 million overall) was a close second in the demo. Fox (7.5 million) was in fourth in both races, but in better shape than this time last year.

Here's a rundown of the 10 most-watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 21.3 million viewers
2. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 18.7 million viewers
3. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 18.5 million viewers
4. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 18.3 million viewers
5. NCIS, CBS, 18 million viewers
6. Sunday Night Football (Philadelphia at Chicago), NBC, 17.3 million viewers
7. CSI: Miami, CBS, 17.2 million viewers
8. Criminal Minds, CBS, 17 million viewers
9. Dancing With the Stars (Wednesday), ABC, 15.9 million viewers
10. The Mentalist, CBS, 15.6 million viewers

 

[Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported CBS Evening News' ratings. The broadcast finished third, out of three nightly newscasts, for the week of Sept. 22-26.]