Comedies high on TV ratings
Shows holding onto audiences
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Much as theatergoers have been chuckling more of late, TV viewers have been gravitating toward comedy -- at least relative to other primetime fare.
While May sweep ratings are down by double-digit percentages for virtually all other programming -- including sudsers, crime skeins and reality contests -- primetime's half-hour heavyweights are mostly flourishing.
The highest-rated comedies among young adults -- 9 o'clock anchors "Two and a Half Men" on CBS, "The Office" on NBC and "Family Guy" on Fox -- are all up vs. their showings to start the May sweep last year.
In contrast, "Grey's Anatomy," "House" and "CSI: Miami" haven't been the same since their return following the writers strike, with year-to-year declines of 25% or more.
Meanwhile, ABC comedic drama "Desperate Housewives" continues to hold up better than most other hours. It's off a modest 7% vs. last May, and last week it finished ahead of dramas "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI" and "House" in adults 18-49.
One potential result of the sitcom surge is that for the first time in recent years, the Big Four will likely sked more half-hours on their fall lineups than in the previous year. In 2007, they placed 17 half-hours on the fall lineups, and that number should top 20 this time around.
For all of its relative success, it's interesting to note that the half-hour comedy remains more of a younger person's fancy.
While five of the top 20 programs in adults 18-49 last week were half-hour laffers, the genre accounted for just one of the top 20 most-watched programs overall ("Two and a Half Men"). But among persons 12-34, eight of the top broadcast programs were half-hour comedies, more than either dramas (seven) or reality programs (five).
"Two and a Half Men" remains TV's No. 1 comedy, with its two-week May sweep average in 18-49 (4.9) repping a healthy 14% rise over last year (4.3). Show's seg on Monday of this week, written by "CSI" scribes, beat out ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" and Fox's "House."
NBC's "The Office" is also excelling. Its two-week average (4.0) is up 8% vs. last year's 3.7 -- even though it shifted from 8:30 to 9 o'clock on Thursday and thus now faces the season's top-rated program on both ABC ("Grey's Anatomy") and CBS ("CSI").
Though not as flashy, Fox's "Family Guy" is up 2% vs. last year at this point in May (4.1 vs. 4.0) and remains TV's top comedy in 12-34.
Another comedy bright spot is CBS third-year skein "How I Met Your Mother." Bolstered in part by airing 30 minutes later than it did a year ago (now skedded behind solid rookie "The Big Bang Theory"), "Mother" has seen its 18-49 average spike by 28% this May vs. last (3.7 vs. 2.9).
In 18-49, "Mother" has also emerged as television's highest-rated scripted program in the 8:30 half-hour -- any network, any night.
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Looking at the Nielsen ratings for the first full week of the May sweep (April 28-May 4), Fox made it 17 consecutive frames atop the primetime 18-49 leaderboard, its longest such in-season streak on record.
Fox's 3.5 rating/10 share in 18-49 was comfortably ahead of ABC (2.9/8), followed by CBS (2.6/7), NBC (2.0/6), Univision (1.6/5), TNT (1.2/3) and CW (1.1/3). Fox limited its year-to-year losses to 10%, but ABC, CBS, NBC and CW were all down 15% or more.
CBS was back on top in total viewers (10.0 million to 9.4 million for Fox), winning two straight weeks for the first time in 2008.
The "American Idol" performance show on Tuesday (9.0/24 in 18-49, 25.09m) and results show on Wednesday (8.4/21, 22.80m) were easily the top demo draws of the week, followed by ABC's "Desperate Housewives" (6.3/16, 16.76m) and "Grey's Anatomy" (6.1/16, 15.31m) and Fox's "House" (5.8/13, 14.64m).
Fox also cooked up winning scores on Tuesday with "Hell's Kitchen" (5.4/13, 11.94m), which drew its largest overall aud ever, and led Saturday with the NASCAR: Richmond 400 race (2.6/9, 7.27m).
At ABC, "Dancing With the Stars" again posted some of the net's best numbers with Monday's performance seg (4.5/11, 18.22m) and Tuesday's results edition (4.1/10, 17.06m), and "Lost" continues to improve the net's fortunes in Thursday's 10 o'clock hour (4.7/13, 10.3m).
Not so hot were Thursday's tandem of "Ugly Betty" (2.4/7, 7.87m) and "Grey's Anatomy," which dropped from their week-earlier returns to post lowest-yet firstrun scores.
CBS was paced by "CSI" (5.1/13, 18.01m), which was up week to week and closed the demo gap with "Grey's Anatomy" while standing as the week's most-watched scripted program overall. Net also had two of the week's top comedies in key demos with "Two and a Half Men" (4.8/11, 12.91m) and "Rules of Engagement" (4.0/9, 10.31m), with the latter improving its odds of returning for a third season.
NBC's quiet week was highlighted by Tuesday's 200th episode of "Law & Order: SVU" (4.1/11, 12.31m), which featured Robin Williams as a guest star. Also, "The Office" (4.0/10, 7.75m) led its tough slot in men 18-49 (4.2/12).
Univision placed third for the week in 18-34 (behind only Fox and ABC), seeing good numbers for the first week of 9 o'clock novela "Fuego en la Sangre" (Fire in the Blood).
CW was paced by "America's Next Top Model" (2.0/6, 4.19m), while lead-out "Farmer Wants a Wife" (1.0/3, 2.39m) did OK in its debut.
TNT swept the ratings categories among cablers, driven by the NBA playoffs. For its 22 first-round games, TNT improved year to year by 10% in total viewers (2.34 million vs. 2.10m) and by 18% or more in all key demos.
MTV's "The Hills" finished as cable's top program in 18-49 (2.5/6, 4.03m), followed by TNT hoops action on Tuesday (2.1/7, 4.67m for San Antonio-Phoenix) and Monday (2.0/7, 3.87m for Los Angeles-Denver).
The most-watched cablecast of the week was Nickelodeon's hourlong movie spec "Chasing Zoey," which hunted down 5.11 million viewers on Friday night.
Other top entertainment series on cable among 18-49ers included Discovery's "Deadliest Catch" (1.8/5, 3.53m), MTV's "Real World" (1.5/4, 2.48m), Bravo's "Top Chef" (1.2/3, 2.42m) and Sci Fi's "Ghost Hunters" (1.2/3, 2.50m).
And on Sunday, E! saw season-high numbers for "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" (1.0/3 in 18-49, 1.93m), the night's top cable show in women 18-49 (1.5/4) and 18-34 (1.8/5).
