1 February 60.3mil................ 2 November 59.7.............. 3 January 56.0....... 4 October 54.6............ 5 May 50.4............ 6 March 48.5 7 December 45.8 8 April 44.7
This season,
thanks to the World Series, the Super Bowl and the Olympics all landing
within sweeps, February and November floated to the top of the overall
ratings this season, with February jumping from 4th last season and November
up from 3rd. Overall, the three sweeps months averaged 56.8mil viewers
this season, 14% more than the 50.0mil the non-sweeps months averaged.
Last season the gap was only 3%.
Overall Gain/Loss
1 February +6.0% 2 November +4.7 3 May -0.4 4 January -2.3 5 October -5.4 6 March -7.0 7 April -7.6 8 December -8.1
An indicator
of just how specials-laden this season's sweeps months were, all of the
sweeps months were at the top of the gainers list. Repeat heavy April and
December suffered the biggest losses.
Competition
Index
1 January 2.4mil 2 October 3.7 3 November 4.2 4 December 4.4 5 March 5.1 April 5.1 7 May 5.4 8 February 17.0
In case you
forgot, this measure takes the difference between the first and fourth
rated shows and adds it to the difference between the UPN and WB. Clearly,
in the 2001/2002 season, the rich got richer and the poor poorer. the only
surprise was that January, the most competitive month this year, was dead
last last season. Last year, the difference was 4.5mil. But this season
that would still make it very competition in comparison to the other months.
As for February, with NBC's Olympics, it was a complete blowout. Look for
better numbers next season.
Average Ranking
1 CBS 1.50 2 NBC 1.63 3 ABC 3.13 4 Fox 3.50 5 UPN 5.13 6 WB 5.75
Was NBC's 11%
victory over CBS on the season an even handed affair? Nope. Overall, CBS
won more months in viewers than NBC did, with an average monthly ranking
of 1.50. NBC sat in second at 1.63. ABC was way back at 3.13, while Fox
sat at 3.50. On the mini nets, though they tied last year, this season
the UPN pulled ahead of the WB by a comfortable margin.
Highest Monthly
Ratings/Lowest Quotient
1 CBS 0.186 2 ABC 0.322 3 UPN 0.326 4 WB 0.384 5 Fox 0.838 6 NBC 1.088
This one takes
the difference between a networks highest and lowest rated months, then
divides it by the overall season average. A lower number means that ratings
were pretty stable, the higher the more peak and valley-ish. In this measure,
CBS was the most stable overall with a quotient of only 0.186. ABC, while
lowly rated, at least had consistantly low ratings. On the other end of
the specturm, Fox did poorly with a 0.838, reflecting its World Series
peak and its April valley, while NBC did a horrible 1.088. But still, when
your peack is over 24mil viewers for the Olympics, a number this high aint
necessarily bad.
Highest Rated
Months
1 NBC Feb 24.6mil 2 Fox Nov 14.6 3 CBS Nov 13.4 4 NBC May 13.2 5 NBC Oct 12.9 6 NBC Jan 12.6 7 CBS Jan 12.5 NBC Nov 12.5 9 CBS Oct 12.4 CBS Mar 12.4
Surprise, surprise.
CBS and NBC locked up all but one of the highest rated months. NBC had
5, CBS 4, and Fox just one. Last season, NBC had only 2, November, CBS
had 4, while ABC took 5. How times change.
As for the months
represented, the main theme was November and January, with a combined 5,
although CBS came in with some good numbers for the traditionally lower
rated March, while NBC did well in May.
JustTV: 2001/2002 Useless Information