Surprise: 'Lost' ratings rebound; audience levels steady despite digital transition

If this is what the digital transition looks like, broadcasters need not worry. 

Despite more than 400 stations switching to digital signals the night before, Wednesday's ratings showed no sign of overall decline. One third of U.S. stations are no longer sending analog signals. Some shows were up this week and some were down. But after broadcasters lobbied the government to extend the transition deadline out of concern for losing more viewers to technological changes, there's no sense thus far that the switchover is the next DVR.

With millions of homes potentially impacted by the change, 62.6% of households were watching television last night, according to Nielsen. Wednesday night last week saw a fractionally higher level, 63.1%, which two network ratings analysts attributed to Fox airing a two-hour "American Idol."

As for specific shows, let's note that ABC's "Lost" is an unpredictable show, but its ratings rarely surprise.

This season has been on a steady, mild slide that if charted on a graph would show the numbers on a gradually descending line like an airliner losing altitude. It's pretty typical of later-season heavily serialized shows, even the good ones.

Then, last night, "Lost" (11.3 million viewers, 5.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and 12 share) rebounded big time. Some kind of bounce was expected after last week, when the mystery-thriller faced an extended "Idol" for the first time. But "Lost" shot up to surpass its January season premiere to a new high (its best since last April, in fact). Competition was heavy, too, with everybody except the CW airing originals. The "Lost" gain helped "Life on Mars" (5.8 million, 2.1/6)  which spiked 31% from last week's low. Bonus for ABC: Freshman competitor "Lie to Me" (11.1 million, 4.2/10), which tied "Lost" the last time they faced off two weeks ago, sagged 11% to a season low. Of course, with Fox moving "Idol" against "Lost," the show's late-season viewership surge could be short lived.

"Lost" was the evening's highest-rated scripted series, with Fox's "American Idol" (24.4 million, 8.9/24) winning the night. "Idol" aired its first results show and, as is often the case for the reality series at this juncture, sank to a season low. "Idol" was down 6% from last week. How it performed compared with last year depends on which night you compare it with: "Idol" was up 5% from last season's first results show aired on a competitive Thursday night, but down 21% when stacked against its most-comparable Wednesday two-hour performance show. "Lie" was the second-highest-rated scripted show of the evening. 

CBS placed third with "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (7.3 million, 2.0/6) and "Gary Unmarried" (7.3 million, 2.1/5) on par, followed by "Criminal Minds" (15 million, 3.7/9) and an hour-winning "CSI: NY" (12.4 million, 3.0/8). NBC "Knight Rider" (5.5 million, 1.5/4) and "Life" (5.2 million, 1.5/4) were both up slightly this week, with "Law & Order" (7.2 million, 2.1/6) on par. The CW aired repeats.

NATIONALS UPDATE:

Rich got richer: I was concerned "Lost" would fall a couple tenths and merely match its premiere, but it actually went up a tenth to a 5.2 rating. Both the CBS comedies fell a tenth or so. "Criminal Minds" slipped to a 2.5. "Idol" gained to 9.0, but "Lie to Me" fell a tenth to a 4.1.

Comments

[al3cs]

But are the downloads on ABC's site, Itunes site or torrents count ? If yes then Lost is the most watched show on all earth, i mean from uk to taiwan, japan to us if we had a good system of counting the people that are watching Lost or any other TV show to see its real numbers of people watching and compare the results... Is there ?

[quez]

Very Glad that Knight Rider, Life, Lost, Criminal Minds and Life on Mars went up this week. These are good shows. Im not happy about the 11% drop of Lie To Me. This is a very good show also. I hope more people tune in. There's just too many of these great shows airing on at the same time. Wednesday's are overcrowded.

[mike]

The ABC streams and iTunes downloads are taken into consideration by the networks but not by Nielsen. The ratings are meant to set the ad rates and obviously advertisers are going to pay for people watching on other mediums.

[joel]

Yah, like Mike said...

Lost might have the most viewers worldwide if you take into account downloads, and such... But that means jack to the American advertisers who basically pay to keep these shows on the air. And since they are the ones with the money, it is their numbers that matter.

[Christopher]

i think Lie to me well do we ll on Wensday at 8

[Dowd]

Check out my LOST theory at http://dowd-blog.blogspot.com

[jimi]

"Life On Mars" was helped by last week's much talked about episode which highlighted the legendary NY punk club,Max's Kansas City..

[dom]

steady mild slide? you are correct according to the dictionary but going from 11.3, 11.2, 11.0 is in reality insignificant. it did take a one time hit last week to 9.8 but it was up against idol. so lost really has steady ratings with a one week dip with ai as competition and it rebounded to the same steady numbers. i would think the ones who missed out caught up on the repeat the hour before or online.

[Heradite]

"But are the downloads on ABC's site, Itunes site or torrents count?"

Illegal downloads (torrents) will never be taken unto count by advertisers, so they don't matter. I was unaware you could legally download content from ABC's site, and iTunes is a factor only for the CW.

[egg]

hes talking about 18/49 rating going down not all viewers