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Despite new episodes of Dollhouse, Ugly Betty and Dateline, Medium easily won its timeslot last night with its first new episode in two weeks. The bio-terror attack and Lee’s proposal managed to get kind of a low 6.96 million total viewers, but a respectable 1.8 in the ratings. While this is a huge improvement over last week’s rerun, it’s down slightly from Medium’s last new episode, which garnered 7.80 million viewers with a 1.9 in the 18-49 group.
I’m still dismayed to see that Dateline (6.28/1.5) is still routinely grabbing second place, because we really need to support scripted programming on the networks right now. Although Ugly Betty finished third 4.23/1.2), it was up 33% from last week’s episode, and ABC is going to move it to Wednesdays at 10 next month, which will hopefully further improve its numbers.
Medium also finished in its typical order on CBS, meaning behind Ghost Whisperer and ahead of Numb3rs, although it did trail both shows in total viewers. Ghost Whisperer had 8.23 million total viewers and 1.9 in the 18-49 demo, Numb3rs managed to get 7.30 million viewers, but only 1.6 in 18-49.
As for those pre-emptions that several of you have reported, they don’t affect these numbers. Robert Seidman of TV by the Numbers tells me that,
“If it was pre-empted, whatever aired in its place would STILL BE INCLUDED in THESE fast national numbers, but would be stripped out in the final numbers (which won’t be available before Monday).”
So unfortunately, this means that Medium’s initial ratings may not be quite as good as these numbers may indicate. In fact, it could adversely effect CBS’s entire lineup, based upon how long the pre-emption lasted. However, since at least in some areas, Medium aired later, the DVR numbers should give it its usual jump. In any case, it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.
Image: CBS
Kona, I am really disappointed in these numbers. I think it was a combination of coming off of a repeat week (though that didn’t seem to affect GW and Numbers) and being pre-empted in a couple of major markets. I was really bugged that it got pre-empted in my area, and I had a feeling that the ratings were going to be down this week, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be that bad. This is very discouraging. Let’s hope CBS doesn’t make any big moves before the show comes back in January. I’d really hate to see them pull a vote of No Confidence (like they did to Numbers). It’s pretty much unanimously agreed that Numbers is done after this season. I just hope that Medium doesn’t meet the same fate.
The numbers are down because some tv stations around the US didnt air medium last night and i dont know Why CBS have to resolve this problem… Fans are asking why in their area didnr air medium I hope CBS resolve this problem before the show comes back on 2010 you can see in the numbers Medium never brings low number like that it have to be a problem im really concern
I was just over at pifeedback.com and someone over there pointed out that the series finale of Monk aired at the same time as Medium, which I didn’t know. (I’ve never watched Monk.) So that probably had a lot to do with the lower ratings this week. Well, that and so many markets deciding that of all the nights and all the shows that they could have pre-empted, they just had to pre-empt Medium.
I think (or at least I hope) that the ratings will go back up in January. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
It was also up against the White Collar fall finale on USA, which is supposed to have been amazing (it’s waiting on my DVR).
You are going to have bad nights. All part of business. Medium will not win everynight. As much as I love medium or any other show on tv, Im a DVR guy. My watching dont affect the ratings till the DVR numbers come out. DVR was a godsend for me. I record the shows. Go out friday night, then when I come home, I turn on Medium. It is my favorute show out there but I cant work my schedule around tv.
Mediums numbers will be better. There were two major fnales and it was taken off in some areas. Look for it to be around 8 mil when it returns.
Monk definately affected Medium’s ratings. It pulled close to 10 million viewers and was one of the highest rated cable programs on record. This almost doubled its numbers from the previous week.
Actually, Kona, it had 3.2 million viewers in the demo, which translates to about a 2.4 rating. Still pretty darned impressive though. It would be awesome if Medium could post some numbers like that when it comes back in January.
Ah, Dawn, that makes more sense. I didn’t really read the article! Still, those are really good numbers.
Read an article in EW this week about DVR ratings and it listed the top DVR’d shows of the season so far. Medium maade it into the top thirty, coming at #29 with an average 14% boost in viewership from DVR viewing. Let’s hope that’s enough to satisfy CBS. At least until the live ratings (hopefully) pick back up.
Yeah, and I read that it had something like a 3.2 in the 18-49 demographic. That’s completely insane! Good for them though. Hopefully Medium’s ratings will bounce back in the new year.