Image Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBSFor the seventh time in the last eight years, CBS won the 2009-2010 television season in viewers. It averaged 11.77 million for the season, which ended May 26, and had seven of the 10 most watched shows this year, including NCIS, The Mentalist, NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, The Good Wife, and CSI: Miami. Fox was the second-most watched network with 9.98 million, followed by ABC (8.54 million), NBC (8.21 million), and the CW (2.02 million).
CBS was flat versus last year in viewers, while NBC and Fox were up 4% and 1%, respectively, while the CW and ABC were down 2% and 4%, respectively.
Fox finished the season in the top spot among adults 18-49 (3.7 rating/10 share), and had five of the top 20 programs in the key demographic most desired by advertisers. They include American Idol, Glee, House, and Family Guy. CBS finished second in the demo with a 3.2/9, while NBC and ABC tied for No. 3 with a 2.7/7. CW earned a 0.9/3.
Fox, CBS and the CW were flat in the demo versus last year, while NBC and ABC were down 4% and 7%, respectively.
Fox also was tops for the year among adults 18-34.
1st!
all these “1st!”s won’t help you move out of your mom’s house. go get a job at Denny’s, Ron.
“For the seventh time in the last eight years, CBS won the 2009-2010 television season in viewers.”
How can CBS have “won” the 2009-2010 television season for seven out of eight years? That is a pretty poorly written sentence to lead an article. Are all EW editors already on their Memorial Day vacations?
CBS probably won one year, lost the next, and won the next six. Duh.
I watch nothing on CBS…
Actually, I only watch(ed) Lost, Daily Show, and Conan O’Brien. We’re in a bad age for television.
Eh, not really. You can always seek out great television. You just have to look outside the box. Shows like Breaking Bad, Nurse Jackie and The Good Wife have excellent writing. You’re not going to find this on CSI and all the shows the network “tell” you to watch.
CBS only seems to have crime dramas for old people and mindless comedies for the brain dead.
The Good Wife is excellent, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
And plenty of young people watch NCIS.
I’m 24 (not sure if that’s old to you) and I love NCIS and the Mentalist. CBS also gives me the Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.
Yeah CBS is the only station I don’t watch anything on. I did watch Medium, but that used to be on NBC. My family watches the Good Wife though.
I only watch Big Bang Theory and HIMYM on CBS. I was surprised to see this. I thought surely ABC would be #1. They had Lost, Grey’s Anatomy (which has a big following for reasons known only to Jesus).
ABC lost the lead when they went for more comedy and less drama after Lost, Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives
Lost’s rating weren’t all that hot really. At the very least, nowhere equitable to the amount of coverage it got.
Coming from a long time Grey’s fan…
We all know the writing sucks. But no one (including myself) wants to be the one that stops watching until it’s canceled. And of course, the big numbers means it gets renewed. It’s a bad cycle.
Lost was consistently receiving 4.0-5.0 ratings in the 18-49 share (which is the most important stat, total viewers don’t matter much to advertisers) which is very good these days. The only thing on CBS that gets (actually higher than) those numbers is the Big Bang Theory.
With CBS having the top scripted tv show in NCIS, and several other great shows like HIMYM, Big Bang Theory, The Menatlist and NCIS: Los Angeles i wasn’t really surprised that they won. NCIS was consistently getting close to 20 million viewers per episode and NCIS: LA was getting over 16 million. With those numbers for those two shows, i would be surprised if they didn’t win
ick.. I only watch Fringe and Lost and well now Fringe on network tv. I watch alot of cable shows like Nurse Jackie US Of Tara, True Blood and Weeds.
With the demise of “Lost”, CBS is the only network I watch.
Extremely happy that my personal favorite (“NCIS”) finished out the season as it began – the #1 scripted show on TV – and in its 7th season nonetheless.
Oh to all who aren’t watching NCIS you are missing out. The program began a bit cut from similar cloth but over time its developed into superb TV. Each year gets better and the characters grow
OO YEAH!! I just love it when ppl come here and act like a nosey,grumpy old ppl!! Feeding all trolls now! NCIS is a great show if you like cop drama shows!! And CBS has a lot of thises type of shows soo that must mean A LOT of ppl LOVE thoses kind of shows!! And I’m proud to say–I’m one of them!! NCIS ROCKS and may you keep going for many more years!!
I can’t wait until they bring NCIS back on the scene. That’s how I get thru my evenings.
People really love crime dramas, what more can you say.
If tastes start to change, they could be in trouble since they only offer one type of show.
I only watch HIMYM & BBT, but now that Chuck is coming back in the Fall and BBT is moving to Thursdays – I’ll be catch them online. Oh well…
Funny how people hating on CBS for there programing and yet Shows like lost grab the headlines.
I’m happy for all who win
CBS would be majorly screwed if people turned away from crime dramas.
If it was crime dramas that is getting all the attention then I would have to ask “what happened to NBC?” the L an O network. NCIS blends comedy, action, good scripts, characters into a winning combo. Even csi is getting the message and injecting a little humor here and there. I agree, trends change, but ncis has proven they have it covered.
It’s because the target demographic is old people who stay home and have nothing better to do but watch the 800 spin off crime dramas and their awful comedies.
say what you want about CBS, HIMYM is not an “awful comedy.”
hey jc, maybe all us old people need to hang out partying on tuesday nights like you. No wait, we have jobs on wed. Let me guess, you still have not gotten out of those finely written cartoons you use to enjoy on saturdays. taste in sshows we can gladly dissagree on, but blameing it on “old” people? really? Because of us “old” people, you may have a meaning job someday.
I don’t get why everyone thinks CBS is only for the elderly… I’m a teenager and watch various shows on the network.
And the people who say they don’t watch CBS are the same ones with narrow minded views of their programming. If you don’t watch it, how would you know? The Good Wife, NCIS, Big Band Theory are excellent shows. CBS knows what works for them , and they are successful because of it. When crime drama reach their peak, they’ll simply adjust. At least they don’t cut their shows off at the knees like ABC.
Yea, I’m really not sure what’s all the hate against CBS is about. They seem to be doing fine for themselves. The only station that constantly seems to shoot themselves in the foot these past few years is NBC (I love their Thursday comedy line-up, but Jeff Zucker is an imbecile. #1 to #4!)
By the way, crime dramas have always, always been ratings winners and CBS has always had the most popular from Hawaii Five O to Magnum PI to CSI to Criminal Minds. But they haven’t always been the #1 network. So they must be doing something right, currently.