November Sweeps 2009 Week One, Recap

First a few different-day comparisons between 2009 and 2008.

Private Practice (Th vs. W) +16%
Ugly Betty (F vs. Th) -58%

Law & Order (F vs. W) -36%

Smallville (F vs. Th) -35%

Should be a lot more of these next week, as the World Series this year and election last year REALLY reduced the number of available comparisons.

Anyway, laziness is taking over this year and I'm not doing all those huge lists by network and by genre and by timeslot. I might do something like that at the end of sweeps but I don't think there's a whole lot of education to be gleaned from doing it every week. What I will do are a few top 5 lists.

First, the TOP 5 TIMESLOT GAINERS
1. Dateline vs. Crusoe (NBC, Friday 9pm) +100%
2. Smallville vs. Everybody Hates Chris/The Game (CW, Friday 8pm) +83%
3. The Big Bang Theory vs. Gary Unmarried (R) (CBS, Monday 9:30pm) +81%
4. Law & Order vs. Deal or No Deal (NBC, Friday 8pm) +56%
5. Private Practice vs. Life on Mars (ABC, Thursday 10pm) +38%

A couple things to note here... first, Friday in 2008 was Halloween night, so numbers were depressed relative to the norm. But the real quirk here is that shows like Smallville and L&O are among the biggest show decliners but have made some of the heftiest timeslot improvements. They've been brought in to help their nights, and they've succeeded, but they've certainly taken one for the team to do it.

TOP 5 TIMESLOT LOSERS
1. The Jay Leno Show vs. SNL Presidential Bash (NBC, Monday 10pm) -78%
2. Trauma vs. SNL Presidential Bash (NBC, Monday 9pm) -67%
3. The Jay Leno Show vs. ER (NBC, Thursday 10pm) -56%
4. Hank/The Middle vs. DWTS Results (ABC, Wednesday 8pm) -52%
t-5. Three Rivers vs. Cold Case (CBS, Sunday 9pm) -38%
t-5. Gossip Girl vs. One Tree Hill (CW, Monday 9pm) -38%

The election is responsible for three of the huge numbers in the top 4, the two Presidential Bash hours and the Hank/Middle declines, which are a result of DWTS results being shipped to Wednesday. We'll see more normal results next week, but there will still be a lot of Leno vs. SVU and Leno vs. ER, I'm predicting.

TOP 5 SHOW LOSERS
1. Ugly Betty (F vs. Th) -58%
2. Gossip Girl (M9pm vs. M8pm) -38%
3. Law & Order (F vs. W) -36%
t-4. Smallville (F vs. Th) -35%
t-4. Cold Case (Su10pm vs. Su9pm) -35%

I'm not even doing a "top 5 show gainers" because there aren't 5 of them. Maybe next week. But I thought this list was notable because of a couple points. Moving to Friday hurts shows, even if those shows still make big improvements in their timeslots year-to-year. The three veterans to move to Friday are all on the list. Cold Case, which headed to Sunday at 10, probably an even worse death sentence than Friday on CBS, also makes the list. And then there's Gossip Girl, which swapped places with One Tree Hill, and frankly it's hurt both shows a ton. (GG more, but OTH is down 31% itself)

One more list: a complete roster of the same show, same timeslot comparisons. AKA the "no excuses list." :-P May as well list 'em all, because especially with Leno there aren't a whole lot.

SAME SHOW, SAME TIMESLOT
Amazing Race +14%
Old Christine +5%
CSI: Miami even
20/20 even
Criminal Minds -3%
Brothers & Sisters -3%
2.5 Men -4%
Gary Unmarried -5%
Supernatural -7%
Ghost Whisperer -9%
Grey's Anatomy -9%
Survivor -10%
The Office -13%
Desperate Housewives -14%
CSI: NY -15%
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition -15%
America's Next Top Model -15%
60 Minutes -19%
30 Rock -24%
Numb3rs -26%
90210 -29%
CSI -29%