CW Ratings so far

Well, I haven't done one of these since May. I probably won't be posting
it regularly.

CW Ratings through 10/22/2006

Barnabas Collins...

I would take this with a huge grain of salt. Several points to
consider a good number of viewers are frozen out of the mix. Too
many can't get a CW signal. Also the new season for all

Steven L....

How many?
All top 120 metro markets are covered by CW stations. If they can get
The CW in Fargo North Dakota, isn't that good enough for you?

Obveeus...

99.7% of the people in the top 100 market can get CW. No one else matters.

intents and purposes starts tomorrow. Now that the World Series is
over the real new season starts.

Steven L....

Why do you claim that's true for The CW and not for any other network?

What The CW didn't have this year, is even an attempt at even one new
breakout hit comparable to "Buffy." With only vintage shows, its
viewership can't rise much; it has a much bigger chance of declining
significantly than rising significantly.

Obveeus...

The 'real season' starts when first run episodes start. Any gain by the end
of World Series coverage will be offset by a loss due to other networks
having 'extra special' episodes of their shows for November sweeps. The
only places where CW might be expecting to see any gain over the next month
would be Sunday/monday because of the lineup change.

Rob Jensen...

I wouldn't take the ratings with a huge grain of salt. Given that the
CW's national affiliate coverage is substantially smaller than the
WB's, the ratings that we're getting right now are the real baseline
for comparison as the network grows. What's outrageously inapplicable
is Berman from Mediaweek comparing ratings year-to-year for shows on
the netlet, particularly those that come to the CW from the WB, which
had a stronger network of affiliates than either UPN or the CW.

Also, the World Series generally has a negligible effect on the
ratings for CW/WB shows as they have entirely different audiences.

-- Rob

I didn't start counting for any show until if showed its first new episode.
That means the only shows I counted for the first week were America's Top
Model and Smackdown. Individual episode numbers are at the bottom of the
post.

Some quick thoughts, ANTM and Smackdown are just about exactly where they
were last season on UPN. Supernatural is lower, but only slightly, versus
what it was doing after Smallville last year on the WB. One Tree Hill and
Veronica Mars are both higher than what they did for new eps last season on
their respective nets. Everything else is down, with EHC and 7th taking

telenovels...

That is consistent with the analog coverage (no digital sub-channels):

78% for UPN
83% for CW.
91% for WB.

You would expect UPN to be higher vs. last year. And WB to be lower
vs. last year.

William George Ferguson...

Well, the only two shows that have been consistently higher than last year
are both WB shows. Of course, they were my picks as the most likely to be
higher, because they're the ones that have the most 'higher' to be (OTH and
VM are the ones that have massively better night-partners than last year,
and were the lowest rated of the carry-over shows from the two nets, they
had the most 'up' available).

Rob Jensen...

VM was a UPN show even though it *should* have been on the WB. But
the rest of your point stands.

Obveeus...

Not sure I completely agree with the 'massively better night partners'
comment. One Tree Hill has as its partner, the very show that crushed it in
the ratings last year. So, until this year, the two shows didn't have much,
if any, shared audience. If One Tree Hill has a massively better partner in
ANTM, then why make the same claim about VM when VM wasted that same
massively better partner when it had ANTM? Both OTH and VM have a problem
holding the audience for ANTM since ANTM's audience skews slightly older
than those shows.

William George Ferguson...

VM was on 35 weeks last season. In only 10 of those weeks was it on
following a new ep of ANTM (and it did very well in those weeks). The
other 25 weeks, its night partner was roughly equivalent in ratings to a
test pattern (at its lowest rated, new VM eps were still getting better
ratings than the other hour on UPN that night (usually either an ANTM
repeat or repeats of comedies).

This isn't arguing that VM would have had great ratings if it had stayed
behind ANTM (they would have been a lot less lousy though). Just that for
most of the season, neither VM nor OTH really had a night partner, just
throwaway fill-in programming.

-- Rob

Over-all, the CW is doing more or less the same in HH as either of the
netlets for last season (the difference isn't really significant between
either the WB or UPN, or compared with the CW). It is up in viewers over
either of the parent netlets, though certainly not over both (and nobody
sane expected it would be). Its share is slightly better than either of
the netlets, but not enough to be really significant.

The annoying thing is, since we don't have the 12-34 and 18-34 numbers, we
can't do a decent analysis of its success or failure, since it targets the
subdivisions in those demographics so strongly,

Sharpe Fan...

Veronica Mars was UPN show, not The WB.

Sharpe Fan

the biggest drops. One good sign for EHC is that is still reruns well (as
it did last season).

ANTM Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Wed-800) 5 3.4 6 5.17
(Wed-900) 1 3.6 5 5.26
(Sun-700) 1R 1.4 2 2.01R
(Sun-800) 1R 1.7 3 2.56R
(Sun-900) 4R 1.6 3 2.42R
New Eps 6 3.5 6 5.18
Repeat Eps 6 1.6 3 2.37R

Smallville Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Thu-800) 4 2.9 5 4.77
(Sun-700) 1 1.3 2 1.83R
New Eps 4 2.9 5 4.77

Gilmore Girls Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Tue-800) 4 3.2 5 4.66

Smackdown Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Fri-800) 5 2.5 4 4.00

7th Heaven Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Mon-800) 2 2.8 4 4.18
(Sun-800) 2 2.2 4 3.22
New Eps 4 2.5 4 3.70

Supernatural Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Thu-900 4 2.1 3 3.59

One Tree Hill Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Wed-900) 4 2.2 3 3.19

Veronical Mars Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Tue-900) 3 2.0 3 3.15

Girlfriends Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Sun-800) 2 1.8 3 2.80
(Mon-900) 1 2.1 3 3.08
1R 1.6 2 2.47R
New Eps 3 1.9 3 2.92

EHC Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Sun-700) 2 1.6 3 2.40
(Mon-800) 1 2.0 3 3.00
1R 2.0 3 3.03R
New Eps 3 1.7 3 2.60

The Game Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Sun-830) 2 1.7 3 2.65
(Mon-930) 1 1.7 3 2.65
1R 1.4 2 2.14R
New Eps 3 1.7 3 2.65

All of Us Eps HH Shr Vwrs
(Sun-730) 2 1,5 3 2,35
(Mon-830) 1 1.9 3 2.83
1R 1.6 2 2.51R
New Eps 3 1.6 3 2.51