The Programming Insider

Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:
CBS Wins; DOA The Return of Fox's The O.C.

Thursday 11/02/06
Metered Market Ratings

Household Rating/Share
CBS: 10.9/16, ABC: 10.1/15, NBC: 8.0/12, CW: 3.1/ 5, Fox: 2.7/ 4

-Percent Change From the Comparable Year-Ago Evening (Thursday 11/03/05)
(The CW is compared to the WB's combination of Smallville and Everwood)
ABC: +63, NBC: - 8, CW: -14, Fox: -23, CBS: -25

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Note: The fast national results for Thursday will be posted at www.pifeedback.com at 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night's Results, and Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006.

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-Yesterday's Winners:
Ugly Betty (ABC), Survivor: Cook Islands (CBS), Grey's Anatomy (ABC), CSI (CBS), ER (NBC)

-Yesterday's Losers:
'Til Death (Fox), Happy Hour (Fox), The O.C. (Fox), Six Degrees (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Based on the overnight ratings (the fast national results will be posted on www.pifeedback.com at 12 p.m. ET), CBS led Thursday, beating No. 2 ABC by just 8 percent on this first night of the Nov. 2006 sweeps. CBS is also expected to dominate in total viewers once the fast national results are released, but the race among adults 18-49 could go in either direction. Working against ABC, unfortunately, is the ongoing collapse of new drama Six Degrees. Considerably more alarming, however, was the DOA return of Fox soap The O.C.

Beginning with 8 p.m., the little ABC show that could, Ugly Betty, remained on the winning track with a first-place 10.1 rating/15 share in the overnights. Comparatively, that was 10 percent above CBS' deadly-dull Survivor: Cook Islands (9.2/14), which remains stifled by the lack of notable contestants. Survivor: Guatemela on the year-ago evening (Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005) averaged a healthier 10.9/16, while the first hour of theatrical The Pirates of the Caribbean on ABC was at a 6.2/ 9. Once the fast nationals are released, however, expect Survivor: Cook Islands to rule in both total viewers and adults 18-49.

Third in the 8 p.m. hour was NBC sitcoms My Name is Earl (6.3/10) and The Office (6.0/ 9), followed by the CW's Smallville (3.5/ 5), and the low-rated return of Fox comedies 'Til Death (3.3/ 5) and Happy Hour (2.5/ 4). As a benchmark, Smallville on the year-ago evening scored a heftier 4.2/ 6 on the WB, while former 8-9 p.m. Fox occupant The O.C. was also at a 4.2/ 6.

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