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Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for ABC (College Football) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See definitions at bottom of this post for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings. It was the rare Notre Dame Saturday Night College Football game on ABC (vs. NBC) that pushed the network to the top of the TV ratings race on Saturday night. (while most of the country saw Notre Dame v. Michigan State, some had Texas v. Texas Tech). That nightly ratings average for ABC was 64% better than last Saturday’s NASCAR race. No surprise that Fox’s reality crime duo of Cops and America’s Most Wanted delivered a fairly typical 1.4 adults 18-49 rating overall on the night for second place. Broadcast primetime ratings for Saturday, September 18, 2010 : Time Net Show 18-49 Rating 18-49 Share Viewers Live+SD (million) 8:00 ABC College Football (8-11p) 2.3 8 7.17 FOX Cops (1 new, 1 repeat) 1.3 5 4.01 CBS CSI (repeat) 0.7 3 3.68 NBC The Appren

via press release: Sunday, September 19th. One of the most popular sitcoms in television history was first aired on this day 40 years ago — “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Over seven seasons and 168 episodes, the series combined good writing and casting to examine Mary’s struggle to function as a producer in what was then the man’s world of television news. The cast included Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Ed Asner and Ted Knight. In the final episode, everyone in the newsroom except inept anchorman Ted Baxter is fired. Now, 38 1/2 percent of producers and directors are women, as well as 45 percent of reporters and correspondents, and over half of editors. Sources: Chase’s Calendar of Events 2010, p. 471 Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010, t. 603 SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

It’s true that the ratings don’t matter for HBO like they matter for the networks that sell advertising But HBO will be looking at the ratings for Boardwalk Empire and so will all the media covering TV. And both HBO and the media will be looking at that much more than they did for True Blood for a very simple reason: HBO spent a lot of money on Boardwalk Empire . With a pilot that cost between $18 million and $30 million* depending on how you talk to and a marketing budget of $10 million, it was a pretty big bet for HBO. *This includes the expense of creating the boardwalk set which will wind up being amortized across all the episodes. Months before the premiere HBO was out championing that it had better success selling Boardwalk Empire out of the gate than any other show in its history. That may matter more for Boardwalk Empire than it’s likely to matter for NBC’s The Event . FlashForward had wide international distribution and at least initially rated very well abroad, but we

No more early premieres, no more sneak peaks, no more summer competition. Monday is the first night of the 2010-11 broadcast primetime season. By Tuesday morning, the first ratings report card will be in. Five new shows premiere Monday (CBS – Mike & Molly , Hawaii Five-0 ; NBC – The Event , Chase ; Fox – Lone Star ). Seven veteran shows premiere (ABC - Dancing with the Stars, Castle ; CBS – How I Met Your Mother, Rules Of Engagement, Two And A Half Men ; NBC – Chuck ; Fox – House ) How will they do in the ratings? LAST YEAR Here were the fast affiliate overnight adults 18-49 ratings for premiere Monday LAST FALL: ABC DWTS 4.1, Castle 2.3 CBS HIMYM 3.5, Accidentally on Purpose 3.2, Two And A Half Men 4.4, Big Bang Theory 4.6, CSI: Miami 4.3 Fox House (2 hr) 6.5 NBC Heroes (2 hr) 2.7, The Jay Leno Show 1.8 THIS YEAR No individual guesses, but I’d expect ABC’s line up to stay reasonably close to last season’s premiere numbers. I think CBS will likely fall a bit more, particularly