Tv Ratings | featured news

History Channel's "The Bible" premiere delivered divine Nielsen ratings Sunday night, thumping all of the major broadcast shows. The miniseries' two-hour cable network premiere was seen by 13.1 million viewers and scored a 3.3 rating among adults 18-49. That's more viewers and a higher demo rating than any show on the major broadcast networks last night and ranks as cable's most-watched entertainment telecast this year. If you include the show's repeat, the viewership rises to 14.8 million for the night.

Fox's "American Idol" continues to lose ratings ground on Wednesday, with ABC's "Modern Family" appearing to have edged it out as the night's top show among young adults for the first time. In another first, NBC's rookie drama "Chicago Fire" edged past CBS vet "CSI" to win the 10 o'clock hour in demos.

Kate Gosselin and Kendra Wilkinson set a ratings record for ABC on Tuesday night, while CBS’ latest detective drama delivered less-than golden numbers. The second season premiere of ABC’s Celebrity Wife Swap saddled Playboy pinup Wilkinson with Gosselin’s famed mega-litter (if only you could buy patience at Costco). The show was seen by 7 million viewers and had a 2.4 rating among adults 18-49. That’s up 4 percent from last year’s preview of the celebrity version of Wife Swap last year (and up 14 percent from last year’s regular Tuesday premiere) and represents an all-time high for the show among both viewers and the demo. Next week, “wives” Coolio and Mark McGrath do a swap.

The Oscars telecast was seen by 40.3 million people, a slight increase over last year's show....

Beyoncé Knowles’ autobiographical documentary that premiered last Saturday was the largest audience for an HBO doc since Nielsen amended its method of measuring ratings in 2004, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Nielsen is taking a step towards extending its TV-ratings business to measure online viewing, aiming to gauge how much viewership has drifted away from traditional TV to online outlets.

A February sweeps stunt in which convicted rapist Mike Tyson was cast as a rape victim/convict on “Law &Order: SVU” appears to have backfired, causing the show to suffer its smallest audience on record.

Nielsen has excluded ratings from the 34-minute power outage during Sunday’s Super Bowl that plunged half of the Superdome into darkness and left TV-industry navel gazers wondering what effect it would have on the costly franchise’s ratings.

The Baltimore Ravens' victory over the San Francisco 49ers has set a record for highest overnight ratings in Super Bowl history, the Nielsen company reported Monday....

... But, as rival MSNBC was quick to point out, and BuzzFeed was quick to trumpet, Fox News had its worst prime time ratings in the coveted 25-54 demographic since August 2001, and its lowest total day ratings since June 2008.