OBT Magazine

CBS Wins; Repeat is the Operative Observation for the Remainder of 2009

-Yesterday's Winners:
Two and a Half Men R (CBS), The Big Bang Theory R (CBS), CSI: Miami R (CBS)

-Honorable Mention:
The Sing-Off (NBC)

-Yesterday's Losers (excluding repeats):
Find My Family (ABC), The Jay Leno Show (NBC)

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Note: The fast affiliate results for Monday will be posted at PIFeedback by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night's Results, and Monday, December 21, 2009.

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-Ratings Breakdown:
With repeats running rampant over the next two weeks, there will be little of note in the addictive world of ratings. That said, CBS won this third Monday in December in the overnights with its encore combination of How I Met Your Mother (#2: 3.9 rating/6 share), Accidentally on Purpose (#2: 3.7/ 6), Two and a Half Men (#1: 6.8/11), The Big Bang Theory (#1: 6.1/ 9) and CSI: Miami (#1: 5.9/10). While overnight retention for Accidentally on Purpose out of How I Met Your Mother was solid at 95 percent, the more important adult 18-49 retention is never as strong. As for Two and a Half Men, that 6.8/11 was the highest-rated show of the evening.

The conclusion of short-flight NBC reality/competition The Sing-Off was sampled, with a respectable (and very consistent) 4.6/ 8 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

The Sing-Off (NBC)
8:00 p.m.: 4.6/ 8 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 4.5/ 7 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 4.7/ 7 (#2)
9:30 p.m.: 4.8/ 8 (#2)

Given the time of year, you can to give NBC a “thumbs up” for introducing something new. Leading out of The Sing-Off was The Jay Leno show, which finished second behind CBS' CSI: Miami encore with a 3.7/ 6 in the overnights at 10 p.m. Considering Leno faced repeats on both ABC and CBS, this should be a better performance.

Next was ABC care of repeat holiday special I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown (#3: 3.6/ 6), recently introduced Find My Family (#3: 3.1/ 5), which has not benefited airing opposite repeats, and a repeat of Castle (#3: 3.2/ 5). Why Kleenex is not sponsoring Find My Family is beyond me.

Elsewhere, Fox aired repeats of House (#4: 3.3/ 5) and Lie To Me (#4: 2.8/ 4), which is keeping the time period occupied until the return of 24 in January. And The CW closed the night with repeats of One Tree Hill (#5: 0.7/ 1) and Gossip Girl (#5: 0.5/ 1), which never fare well in second-run telecasts. And there you have it…that's Monday.

Monday 12/21/09

HH
Rtg/Shr
CBS 5.4/ 9
NBC 4.3/ 7
ABC 3.3/ 5
Fox 3.0/ 5
CW 0.6/ 1

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-Note: The year-to-year overnight comparisons are not available today.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

-- Marc Berman

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