Nielsen’s has released Week 5 and fall season-to-date rankings for DVR playback viewership. Some noteworthy points: For the week of Oct. 19-25, the following shows cracked the Top 20 of the DVR total-viewership ranking but not the Top 20 for live viewing: ABC’s Private Practice, Flash Forward, Castle, Modern Family, and Brothers & Sisters, NBC’s The Office, Heroes, and 30 Rock, and Fox’s Glee. Four of the top eight DVR’d shows for Week 5 were hour-longs from ABC. The CW is the network which consistently boasts the biggest percent differences between live and DVR viewership for shows like Smallville, Gossip Girl, 90210 and Melrose Place; Fringe and Dollhouse also perform very well in this regard for Fox.
After the jump, the Top 25 shows by total average DVR viewership (data reflects the fall season so far, from Sept. 21-Oct. 25)…
1. Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
2. The Office (NBC)
3. Criminal Minds (CBS)
4. The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
5. Private Practice (ABC)
6. Flash Forward (ABC)
7. NCIS (CBS)
8. Desperate Housewives (ABC)
9. Glee (Fox)
10. CSI: Miami (CBS)
11. NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)
12. Castle (ABC)
13. The Good Wife (CBS)
14. Modern Family (ABC)
15. CSI: NY (CBS)
16. House (Fox)
17. Heroes (NBC)
18. Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
19. 30 Rock (NBC)
20. Law & Order (NBC)
21. Numb3rs (CBS)
22. Cougar Town (ABC)
23. The Ghost Whisperer (CBS)
24. Medium (CBS)
25. Survivor: Samoa (CBS)
poor ugly betty… I’m really feeling a dark cloud over the show
I feel the cloud as well. I hope those bas***** at ABC give us closure. I am still reeling from last seasons cancellations.
I know!! I thought for sure that she would be on the list! Since they moved her to fridays, I and everyone I know that watches had to start DVRing! I hope they at least finish the season out! The ratings are poor but i’m sure they cant get anything better for Fridays anyways!
the problem with dvr veiwership is it doesn’t mean a whole lot to advertisers as they are assuming you are going to fastforward through the commercials (which i too assume most ppl do). So though its great that their is increased veiwership fot he shows with the DVR ratings…they have little impact on a network’s decision to keep or lose a show.
I pay more attention to the commercials when I am watching something on DVR. When it’s live I totally ignore the ads, but when I’m fast forwarding, I’m watching closely to see when the commercial break ends. It’s time for the Neilsen system (and advertisers for that matter) to move into the 21st century.
Yeah, but are you really ‘paying attention’ to what the commercial is for when you watch a DVR’d show? I only care about spending as little time as possible on the commercials without missing any part of the show itself- I’m actively trying to avoid all commercials, even if I have to go back a few seconds into the last one. If I’m watching live, I’m forced to sit through the commercials, which makes me more likely to notice what the commercial itself is for. The only commercial I can think of that I actually stopped my DVR for and paid attention to in the last month was when they started advertising for the ‘Up’ DVD.
Actually, there was a study that came out that counters your argument. It proved that most dvr users do indeed watch the commercials…cause we are lazy and don’t fastforward. lol
Ugly Betty hasn’t been appointment television for me for years, and while I started watching it a little bit this season Dollhouse and SGU are ahead it for my coveted two DVR slots at 9pm on Friday.
i disagree, i download dollhouse on itunes and record medium and ugly betty. this season pretty much sucks bc most of my shows i like to watch are all on at the same time. so i inevitably have a huge itunes bill this season as my dvr can only record 2 at a time
nick, i would suggest using your 2 slots to record betty & dollhouse and then recording sgu when it reairs at 11pm on SyFy (aka SciFi). that way you can record all 3 (thought dollhouse won’t be on for several weeks since it’s benced for sweeps).
Where’s Fringe on the list, I thought their DVR numbers were good? I almost never watch a show live, but I usually watch it the same day it aired. Is stuff like that factored in to these numbers?
KR – This list is straight numbers of viewers. IIRC – Fringe and Dollhouse and the like got the greatest percentage gain, from the DVR.
I don’t have the link, but I just read a study that stated viewers are not fast forwarding through commercials as much as you think. It was crazy how many people that don’t fast forward at all. A lot of viewers forget they can fast forward. The key for advertisers is to get your commercial on as soon as the break starts. Most DVR users allow 1-2 ads to air before they even start fast forwarding.
Cool stuff. Run a Google search for the reference. It was a legit source.
Advertisers will have to learn to cope with the DVR, because it’s not going away any time soon. They can’t just pretend it’s not going to impact their advertising slots by saying they will never take DVR numbers into account. Many companies are paying more money for the coveted ‘post-black’ commercial break or the slot right before the show picks back up, because DVR users are more prone to stop and rewind to not miss a second of the actual show (one where this works extremely well? NCIS–people LOVE to see what that gray screen capture is going to be). Advertisers are also compensating with in-show advertising and unique techniques–ads that catch your eye and make you stop fastforwarding; bright logos that are the only things you see, or double insertion (no commercial is ever ‘mistakenly’ run back to back–it’s all planned and paid for).
Im happy Flash Forward is doin soo well.
Best new show of the fall season on the mainstream networks.
Also Ugly Betty isn’t on here cause its horrible and no one cares.
I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the shows get dropped off this list by the time their next seasons start.
Mainstream networks come out with alot of garbage. every once in awhile they actually come out with quality television. It’s basically just a filter to weed out the bad ones which is why soo many get cancelled
I care about Ugly Betty so dont go off saying no one cares. It’s been amazing this season and maybe if you watched it, you’d know.
The whole DVR phenomena is quite interesting. I find that I DVR shows I really care about, and the stuff I’m watching live (‘traditional’ sit-coms, usually, like 2 & 1/2 Men and Big Bang) are more background take-it-or-leave-it, and not my ‘appointment tv’. I’m probably giving ratings boosts to the wrong shows, but I love watching the good stuff when I want to, and to be able to pause and replay favorite scenes (happens all the time with The Office and Modern Family) without having to worry about whether I’m cutting into another show. I couldn’t live without a DVR at this point.
I totally agree. I DVR everything so that I can watch the important stuff at my leisure. The DVR has actually caused me to watch more TV because I don’t have to worry about when it’s on. It’s just there when I want it to be. Before the DVR if I missed a few weeks I’d generally just stop watching because it wasn’t important enough to have to be home and available at a specific time to watch. So now I’m a sucker for TV and watch way too much, but shouldn’t that be good for the networks? And I don’t think I would’ve found any on the cable networks without DVR. Some of my favorite shows are on USA now.
agreed about USA- Psych is the best show on tv, but EW refuses to give it any lovin!
Didn’t EW just write an article saying Fringe would survive because of its DVR numbers? And it’s not even on this list?
I DVR everything I care about and don’t watch anything in real time anymore. The commercials drive me crazy!! The networks should be grateful, because I can watch more TV in the same amount of time by fast forwarding through all of the commercials. Welcome to the age of technology! I did the arbitron booklet for radio ratings and felt like I stepped back into the 50s. Media and advertisers will just have to learn to adapt.
I wonder if the reason most of the highly rated shows are on ABC, NBC, and CBS are because a lot of people still only have basic cable. Some of the top shows are really crap, while excellent shows are on USA, etc. My personal favorite is on CW (yeah Smallville!), which relies heavily on DVR numbers because of its Friday timeslot. I certainly hope all factors are taken into consideration when shows are up for renewal.
Ugly Betty has been fantastic this season! Too bad its not getting DVRed too much. I think a lot of people who dont visit websites like EW or whatever dont know that it got moved to fridays.
I love that Private Practice is one of ABC’s top shows against all odds. Just goes to show that viewers pay little attention to press criticism. Well done Kate Walsh and co.
Word.
I love Private Practice! It’s gotten better this year compared to last year and the first. And its getting more live viewings as well. And last Thursday’s episode renewed my faith in this show. Although it took a little long to get to this point I think. Here’s to keeping it strong and looking forward to a strong rest of the season!
Ugly Betty has been amazing this season.Granted season 3 wasn’t very good but its back on top form again,i wish people would bother tuning in to see that.It will be a shame for those of us who do love the show to lose it after this season which is looking like it will be the last.
This list is skewed, it’s taking into account repeats which aren’t DVR’d. That’s why shows like CSI and The Mentalist which both rank in Top 10 weekly among DVRs aren’t on the chart along with Fringe. Also why House is so far down despite being #2 each week in DVR viewers.