Full 2011-2012 TV Season Series Rankings

COMMENTS (37)

• Great! NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI and Castle all in the top 10 most watched scripted shows. yaaaaahhhhhhhooooooooooooooooo

  Comment by sofia — Thursday May 24, 2012 @ 11:23pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Yes horay for all of those shows!!!

    Comment by Ann — Tuesday May 29, 2012 @ 1:06pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Still think canceling NBC’s Harry’s Law is and was a REALLY DUMB DECISION!

  Comment by HS — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 1:44am PDT  Reply to this post

• Why do ABC and NBC’s crapfest of comedies keep getting renewed?? I didn’t realize how utterly bad their ratings are.

  Comment by tv is weird — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 6:26am PDT  Reply to this post

• Amazing how things have changed in 15 years. Quoting from the fifth edition (1997) of a textbook I co-edited: “Until the 1980s, a weeknight rating below 20 (or an audience share of less than 30) almost always resulted in a program’s cancellation on any network. But because of steady network audience erosion, by the early 1990s the target numbers had dropped to a minimum weekday prime-time rating of 12 and a share of 18.” That was in the mid-1990s. Now a show is a hit with a 6 rating! Good thing advertisers pay a lot less, right?

  Comment by Doug Ferguson — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 6:45am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Thanks for the news flash.

    Comment by tostonesfix — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 7:14am PDT  Reply to this post

  • In the 1970s there were three broadcast networks plus PBS and most people still didn’t have access to cable. In the 80s FOX arrived and cable took off. In the 90′s UPN and the WB showed up on broadcast and cable channels exploded. Now there are 20 broadcast channels in most areas. 5 original programming commercial networks PBS, MyNetworkTV, Ion, Ion Life, Live Well, etc. And 100s of cable networks. There are way to many choices to garner those huge ratings numbers anymore.

    Comment by Snappy Dan — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 10:39am PDT  Reply to this post

  • There also wasn’t the explosion of channels there has been since then. When you only have about 40 channels, of course you’re more likely to watch the main four or five rather than when you have 600 options.

    Comment by Kerry — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 10:58am PDT  Reply to this post

• U don’t break up with your boyfriend until you have a new man. NBC has no other men. Their programing is bad. But if you’ve seen their upcoming pilots, its only getting worse. Maybe except revolution and 1600

  Comment by advice — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 7:38am PDT  Reply to this post

  • Nice metaphor. Yeah, I think NBC is going to get burned with their overly heavy comedy slate. Comedies are so hit and miss, most if not all will go down in flames. They need more glitzy looking buzz generating shows like Revolution. The thing about that kind of show, it can be a flash in the pan, so just banking on one is foolish.

    Comment by scifi_fan — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 11:09am PDT  Reply to this post

• Looking at the numbers makes me wonder even more why Rob was cancelled.

  Comment by David Chance — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 7:39am PDT  Reply to this post

  • I agree. Their ratings were better than rules of engagement behind the big bang theory.

    Comment by lll — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 9:04am PDT  Reply to this post

• It’s an amazing phenomenon. The number of viewers, of any age, is so low and most of us scan through the commercials with a DVR … so how can these shows be an effective advertising tool for sponsors? Ironically, those people without DVR’s who might actually watch a commercial are the older folks who sponsors don’t want.

  Comment by Kieran4 — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 8:39am PDT  Reply to this post

  • TV is always going to be a viable tool for advertisers. And fast-forwarding through commercials has nothing to do with age. It has everything to do with relevance. Have you ever stopped to watch a commercial that you may have heard about from YouTube or Facebook? Or just a commercial that actually looked interesting?

    Plus, visually, you can still tell what ad is running even if for a split second while your fast-forwarding.

    To your point, the focus on A1849 is ridiculous when the median age of the TV viewer is 51. The younger end of that demo is not watching TV the same way and need to be targeted differently. CBS is smart for focusing more on VIEWERS and less on DEMOS.

    Go for viewers and you’ll hit any demo you want. Everyone talks about how old-skewing “NCIS” is, but its demos are still higher than that of cool, hip shows like “Glee” and “Office” by a pretty noticeable margin.

    Comment by Terrence — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 10:49am PDT  Reply to this post

  • 40% of DVR users watch ads, and networks can tell who is watching what. So advertisers don’t mind DVR viewing. They just make sure that they only pay for effective viewing, not for ads that are skipped. Ad-hopping (rather than fast forwarding) features might decrease this to 0%, which is why the networks are suing the f*ck out of DishTV right now.

    Advertisers also believe that after the age of 49, people are locked into their brand preferences. Older people may still buy lots of stuff, but if they can’t be budged from their brand preference, there’s no sense advertising to them. Even if it’s merely harder to budge them vs a younger people, it makes more sense to advertise to younger people because your dollars go further. In addition I think a lot of this comes down to inertia and ageist prejudice in the ad industry.

    Advertisers are doing as well as ever. If the audience for shows is lower, they spread their money around to more timeslots and more ads. I’m sure we’ve noticed that the number of ads have increased. That’s because the viewers for each show has decreased, so ads must increase to keep everything equal.

    Maybe this means free TV is being pushed into a death spiral. Maybe they’ll lose and eventually free TV will go extinct, and we’ll all have to pay to watch anything. The networks are still fighting that, because they want to stay in business, so they will fight to the bitter end.

    Comment by cable_comedy_rules — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 11:15am PDT  Reply to this post

• What about the syndicated shows? I suspect that the #1 show will probably be either: ‘Judge Judy’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, or ‘Wheel Of Fortune’…

  Comment by L C — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 8:54am PDT  Reply to this post

• It’s sad to see all of those CBS procedurals rank so high. There are a lot of idiots in this country.

  Comment by Jan — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 9:20am PDT  Reply to this post

  • CBS procedurals are the kind of shows you turn on in the evening and half watch while you do laundry, put the kids to bed, and load the dishwasher. It’s disposable programming. Pure and simple. The television equivalent of a Nicholas Sparks novel. Everyone knows if you want real TV – compelling drama, solid acting, great writing – you can’t get it on Network TV anymore. You have to go to cable. Period.

    Comment by Bees — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 9:44am PDT  Reply to this post

    • Wrong, singing reality shows like Idol, X-Factor, The Voice and even DWTS can be watched while doing other things as they have A LOT OF FILLER…you can’t do that with CBS dramas because you will miss the whole show and why things were done a certain way.

      Comment by Joe — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 11:28am PDT  Reply to this post

    • AHEM
      Good Wife, Revenge, Once Upon A Time and Person of Interest would like a word with you. Plus not all cable shows are good. The Closer, Magic City, and all TNT and USA network shows are worse than what the networks are pulling out.

      Comment by John — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 12:18pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • What sad about it? Just because “Criminal Minds” isn’t “Breaking Bad” doesn’t mean it isn’t compelling or riveting or surprising.

    What’s sad is people’s unfortunate attitudes toward procedurals. What’s sad is people writing off broadcast as if cable as a whole is sooo much better. There are great shows on cable. There are great shows on broadcast. There is a lot of CRAP on cable. There is a lot of CRAP on broadcast.

    What’s sad is how well mindless, unscripted progamming does. THAT is sad. A well-done procedural on broadcast is far from it.

    Comment by Terrence — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 10:53am PDT  Reply to this post

• Why does this list average repeats with new shows. This gives a huge advantage to shows that don’t have repeats.

  Comment by John — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 10:29am PDT  Reply to this post

• Looking at the demo numbers CBS’ decision to keep CSI NY over Miami looks stranger than ever. Must be another reason than the stated ones.

  Comment by Jan — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 10:29am PDT  Reply to this post

  • They cancelled CSI Miami because it was more expensive to produce than CSI NY. They should have kept both and reduced them to 13 episodes each, but what do I know? I don’t know what CBS is thinking.

    Comment by lll — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 5:09pm PDT  Reply to this post

• @Bees: In general you are right but there are some solid, well-written/acted shows on the networks: Modern Family, The Good Wife,Parenthood. Also some entertaining albeit over-the-top ‘soaps’–Revenge and Smash, and intermittently, Greys and Private Practice.. In my humble opinion.

  Comment by Ronnie — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 11:38am PDT  Reply to this post

• 30 Rock and Parks and Rec ratings are always heartbreaking.

  Comment by Jon — Friday May 25, 2012 @ 2:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Too bad total viewers don’t matter to the networks. All they care about is the 18-49 yo demo so good shows like Harry’s Law goes away while shows with smaller audiences stick around. I keep hoping maybe Harry will get picked up by a cable net like TNT the same 1 that rescued Southland after NBC cancelled that show.

  Comment by Daniel S — Saturday May 26, 2012 @ 7:12am PDT  Reply to this post

• These numbers are basically all wrong. Terra Nova never got above a 3.1.

  Comment by Carter — Saturday May 26, 2012 @ 8:07am PDT  Reply to this post

• I am a 64 yr. old woman and grandmother. I have the Dish. I still watch network shows. ie:CBS, NBC & ABC. I too am sorry to lose CSI: Miami. I have watched all 3 CSI’s since each one started. I do hope a network picks up CSI: Miami, at least for closer. TNT did for THE Closer. Maybe ALL networks should have closers for their series. Thanks for letting me get my 2 cents in!

  Comment by Judi Murphy — Saturday May 26, 2012 @ 2:24pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’m thrilled that Bones is among the top 50. My absolute favorite!

  Comment by Alexandra — Saturday May 26, 2012 @ 11:34pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Supernatural is the only watchable show on CW’s boobs and shock lineup. As a 45 yr old I don’t watch boobs and shock.

  mon castle
  tue ncis ncisla
  thu poi mentalist
  fri Supernatural

  nothing else worth watching in TPTB T&A jiggle wiggle fluff crap. Don’t know why they think viewers work for them or that this reality or boobs, gore and shock style shows are something viewers want to watch.

  Comment by Tawrens — Sunday May 27, 2012 @ 7:16pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • nikita is good too

    Comment by Anonymous — Wednesday May 30, 2012 @ 1:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I was really sorry to see GCB go, and didnt feel ABC gave it a chance. It started mid-season and lasted through only 10 episodes.
  Yes, there was controversy, but many of the people who watched are Christians who “got it” that being a Christian doesn’t mean you are perfect in any way. I loved the message that was always at the end. I will miss the girls on the show!

  Comment by Karen Kay Rea — Sunday May 27, 2012 @ 9:17pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Castle should be the first one!!! BEST SHOW EVER!!!!
  CHEERS, BY PORTUGAL <3

  Comment by Joana — Thursday November 1, 2012 @ 11:42am PDT  Reply to this post

• Yes, was shocked to see Harry’s Law gone. Very disappointed. What a major mistake.

  Comment by Lisa Contreras — Sunday November 4, 2012 @ 4:38pm PST  Reply to this post

• FX stays on top of it better then any station out there, The Shield ended and Sons Of Anarchy was right there to pick up, Sunny is probably the funniest show on TV, Archer is great, and when The Americans start FX is going to have another hit on their hands nobody else can touch, outside of HBO, I dont believe anyone can hold a thing to FX, thats what I think, and certainly no network with their by the book mindless crap it’s all pathetic, how about a little originality, that’s why network tv is gone to crap.

  Comment by Cody — Wednesday November 28, 2012 @ 9:42am PST  Reply to this post

• ooooooooooooh what is this ???
  where is breaking bad ????
  is it all about american ideas or it’s just a list found by some one who never asked about best series ever made . . .
  completely unacceptable
  no wait
  not if i thought breaking bad is tv serie by mistake

  Comment by Majid — Monday February 11, 2013 @ 11:03am PST  Reply to this post