Demos Year-to-Year, November Sweeps 2010 Week One Recap

Back into weekly recap mode!

Here are this week's daily posts, the stuff from which I draw for this post.
Thursday | Friday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday

Top 5 year-to-year show losers
1. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition -45%
2. World Series Game 4 -45%
3. 60 Minutes -36%
4. CSI: NY (F9pm vs. W10pm) -36%
5. The Biggest Loser (T8-9pm vs. T8-10pm) -31%

Usually most of the big show losers have moved to much tougher timeslots like CSI: NY, but this year there aren't a ton of those, and many of those that did move to tougher situations have held up decently, or at least well enough to miss the list. (Medium at -26%, Supernatural at -21%, and The Big Bang Theory at -11% being a few off the top of my head.) Despite the big year-to-year hit to the World Series on Sunday (that was game 4), two other Sunday shows also took huge hits. Credit the presence of NFL football on Sunday night in 2010 but not 2009 for that one. The Biggest Loser's one-hour format didn't help matters in its comparison this week, but it has been a terrible cycle for that show anyway, and it may well be back on this list in subsequent weeks.

Top 5 year-to-year show gainers
1. The Middle (W8pm vs. W8:30pm) +53%
2. Modern Family +37%
3. Dancing with the Stars (Mon.) +18%
4. Criminal Minds +15%
5. Community (Th8:30pm vs. Th8pm) +14%

ABC's The Middle has been one of the success stories of this season, but even moreso across the last couple weeks. It made a huge gain on last year's episode, which had a Hank lead-in and couldn't even crack a 2.0. Modern Family and Dancing continue to soar, Criminal Minds had a well above average week, and Community benefited from a Shrek Halloween special lead-in.

Top 5 year-to-year timeslot losers
1. School Pride vs. Law & Order (NBC, Friday 8-9pm) -57%
2. Extreme Makeover Home Edition (ABC, Sunday 8-9pm) -45%
3. World Series Game 4 (Fox, Sunday) -45%
4. 60 Minutes (CBS, Sunday 7-8pm) -36%
5. House (R)/The Good Guys vs. House (R) (Fox, Friday 8-10pm) -32%

Fall 2010 didn't see too many big hits getting moved, so the potential to run up huge numbers in this column may not be that great in November. School Pride is running way, way behind a show that was axed last season, three shows on World Series/NFL Sunday return to the list, and a Fox evening that included an original hour couldn't live up to the rerun of last season's two-hour House premiere. (Note: I left out the Hell's Kitchen rerun vs. World Series on Wednesday, since I usually don't do sports comparisons, especially vs. regular programming. Made some exceptions for the World Series this year. I need to get more consistent!)

Top 5 year-to-year timeslot gainers
1. Supernatural vs. America's Next Top Model (R) (The CW, Friday 9-10pm) +175%
2. The Middle vs. Hank (ABC, Wednesday 8-8:30pm) +123%
3. Undercover Boss vs. Three Rivers (CBS, Sunday 9-10pm) +88%
4. Survivor vs. Old Christine/Gary Unmarried (CBS, Wednesday 8-9pm) +85%
5. Primetime: What Would You Do? vs. Ugly Betty (ABC, Friday 9-10pm) +55%

Unscripted improving on scripted is always a big win in the money column, so the likes of Undercover Boss, Survivor, and Primetime: WWYD? have a lot to be happy about. The Middle made a ridiculously huge gain on what would turn out to be the last we'd ever see of Hank, while Supernatural looks to be a reliable fixture on this list when thrown up against the weak Top Model reruns of yesteryear.

Here's the week one recap from November 2009.