Ratings News - 3rd November 2010

Prime-Time Metered Market Tuesday Ratings:
ABC Wins; Atypical Results Due to Election Coverage

Tuesday 11/02/10
Note: The overnight data now includes DVR playback until 3 a.m. local time. One year earlier it was based on Live data only.

HH
Rtg/Shr
ABC 9.0/14
CBS 6.4/10
NBC 4.6/ 7
Fox 3.0/ 4
CW 1.4/ 2

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-Note: Due to Election night coverage, comparisons to the year-ago evening are not valid and are not included today.

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats and election coverage):
One Tree Hill (CW), Life Unexpected (CW)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
ABC won this atypical Tuesday, which featured four-and-one-half hours of election coverage. Led by Dancing with the Stars, the alphabet net beat normally overnight dominant CBS (which was in repeats from 8-10 p.m.) by a hefty 41 percent. Third overall was NBC, followed by Fox and The CW.

A 90-minute edition of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, featuring the departure of nice guy Rick Fox, averaged a rock-solid 12.1 rating/18 share from 8-9:30 p.m., building by half-hour as follows:

Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
8:00 p.m.: 10.9/17 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 11.9/17 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 13.5/20 (#1)

That led into ABC News: Vote 2010 at a 5.5/ 9 from 9:30-11 p.m.

CBS slotted repeats of NCIS (#2: 8.1/12) and spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles (#2: 7.3/12) from 8-10 p.m., which still score in non-originals, followed by CBS News Election coverage at a last-place 3.9/ 7 from 10-11 p.m.

Over at NBC, a one-hour edition of The Biggest Loser (which should only be one-hour every week at this point) finished third in the overnights in the 8 p.m. hour, with a 4.6/ 7. That led into two-hours of NBC News – Election Night 2010 at a 4.5/ 7 from 9-11 p.m.

Elsewhere, Fox aired a repeat of Glee (#4: 3.8/ 6 at 8 p.m.) into America’s Election Headquarters: The 2010 Midterms at a mere (and fourth-place) 2.3/ 3 at 9 p.m. And The CW’s combination of veteran One Tree Hill (#5: 1.5/ 2) and sophomore Life Unexpected (#5: 1.4/ 2) did not benefit despite facing repeats and election coverage.

To give you an idea of how the election coverage fared opposite each, here is the 10 p.m. hour broken out by half-hour:

10:00 p.m.
ABC: 4.9/ 8, NBC: 4.5/ 7, CBS: 4.4/ 7

10:30 p.m.:
ABC and NBC: 4.3/ 7 each, CBS: 3.4/ 6

The election coverage, needless to say, was not a ratings grabber. And CBS News remained in the No. 3 position as usual.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback