TV Ratings: 'The Voice,' Debate easily top NLCS Game 7 on Monday

'Gossip Girl' gets a small bump opposite Obama-Romney

By Daniel Fienberg Tuesday, Oct 23, 2012 12:13 PM

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney cross paths

Credit: ABC

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Fast National ratings for Monday, October 22, 2012.

Despite the Presidential Debate taking up two-thirds of primetime for most of the networks, the Monday night bottom line looked very familiar: "Dancing with the Stars" helped ABC cling to an overall lead, while "The Voice" helped NBC dominate among young viewers.

Meanwhile, FOX got its best baseball ratings of the postseason for the waterlogged Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, but that wasn't close to enough to compete with the top networks.

And The CW's attempt to counterprogram against the Debate paid off with the biggest "Gossip Girl" audience of the season, not that that's saying much.

On to the numbers...

Among adults 18-49, NBC averaged a 4.0 rating for Monday night, easily tops in the key demographic. ABC's 2.6 rating, FOX's 2.3 rating and CBS' 2.2 rating followed in the key demo. The CW averaged a 0.4 key demo rating.

Overall, though, ABC averaged an estimated 11.265 million viewers and a 7.2 rating/10 share for the night, edging out NBC's 6.7/10 and 11.24 million viewers. [ABC's numbers are slightly elevated due to preemption for NFL coverage in Detroit and it's entirely possible NBC will adjust ahead eventually.] FOX was third with a 4.8/7 and 7.99 million viewers, beating CBS' 4.9/7 and 7.44 million viewers. The CW averaged 927,000 viewers and a 0.7/1 for Monday primetime.

8 p.m. - ABC started primetime in first overall with 13.2 million viewers for "Dancing with the Stars," which finished third with a 2.4 rating among adults 18-49, up from last week, though keep in mind the football thing. NBC's "The Voice" was second overall with 11.95 million viewers and won the hour with a 4.2 key demo rating, both down a hair from last week. FOX's baseball coverage averaged 9.63 million viewers for third and a 2.7 key demo rating for second. CBS aired repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" (7.75 million and a 2.1 key demo) and "2 Broke Girls" (6.93 million and a 2.1 key demo) for fourth. On The CW, "90210" averaged 950,000 viewers and a 0.4 key demo rating, down from last week.

9 p.m. - And then it was all debate coverage. NBC's coverage led the way with 11.73 million viewers and a 4.3 rating among adults 18-49. ABC was a close second with 11.2 million viewers and a distant second with a 2.9 key demo rating, both far ahead of CBS' 7.88 million viewers and a 2.3 key demo rating. FOX's baseball coverage averaged 6.34 million viewers and a 1.9 key demo rating in fourth. On The CW, "Gossip Girl" averaged 903,000 viewers and a 0.4 key demo rating.

10 p.m. - NBC stayed in first for the 10 p.m. hour with 10.5 million viewers and a 3.6 rating among adults 18-49 for debate coverage. ABC stayed second with 9.39 million viewers and a 2.6 key demo rating. And CBS stayed in third with 7.11 million viewers and a 2.1 key demo rating.

All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change, particularly in the case of live events.

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Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

Related Searches: Nielsen ratings, TV Ratings, ratings, Monday, The Voice, Dancing with the stars, Gossip Girl, 90210

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Other Scott

It doesn't seem all that smart for CBS to put in repeats for the debates. Judging by the demo/overall split for the debates the last couple of weeks being about the same as they were for the 8 PM hour, I'd say a lot of people stay on the channel they are already on to watch the debates. So one would think CBS would want as many eyes as possible for the 8 PM hour so they get people to stay on their coverage for the debate.
October 23, 2012 at 12:35PM EST Reply to Comment
- dan Other Scott - But why bother? CBS' coverage wasn't going to win the debates anyway and unlike "The Voice" and "Dancing," CBS doesn't have an unlimited supply of its comedies, so now they've saved the episodes for more valuable times...
  
  -Daniel
  October 23, 2012 at 12:37PM EST
Jonathan

Is there a pattern for which channel viewers watch for the debates? Do viewers typically watch the debates more on ABC, NBC, CBS, or FOX? And if there is such a pattern, why does it exist? I can't imagine the camera angles and lighting are better on one channel than the other, so why would NBC do better than ABC?

Thanks.
October 23, 2012 at 2:06PM EST Reply to Comment
- A If "retention" does exist, that's what's happening.
  October 24, 2012 at 9:56AM EST

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TV Ratings: 'The Voice,' Debate easily top NLCS Game 7 on Monday