It would appear that the WGA strike did have an impact on television afterall, which can now be measured by a definite drop-off in ratings for even some past fan favorites like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “My Name is Earl,” “The Office” and “Ugly Betty,” however, of these four, the two NBC products “Earl” and “Office” faired best, showing only a three percent drop in viewership overall.
SF fans will be happy to know that one of the genre’s programs did very well. ABC’s “Lost” has been showing significant stable rises in its viewership since its return after the strike was ended, trouncing all comers like NBC’s staple “ER” and “Without a Trace,” from CBS. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that a lot of the action now takes place off the island where storylines can find futher expansion, as well as the fact that fans are beginning to get some long-sought after answers to their probing questions (which only leads to more questions).
Overall though, all the major conventional network’s ratings were down by around 11% in the all-important adult 18-49 age group while cable rating did slightly better, which has been the trend for the last couple of years now.
The biggest network winner was CBS with its return of new episodes of the SF comedy, “The Big Bang Theory,” “Numb3rs,” “Ghost Whisperer” and “Moonlight.” The latter two Friday night CBS SF dramas had some of their best numbers to date averaging 9 million and 8 million respectfully.
This time around Nielsen sampled DVR viewing and it shows a significant increase of about nine percent over the same period a year ago. Advertisers will need to find some way to tap into that market if conventional television is to remain a viable factor.
