That would be hard though, since there is no way to really know how good or bad an episode is before one sees it.

True. Good point. I guess I was saying more how it's hard to determine what effects/determines ratings, period.

Aren't the final numbers always different from the preliminary ones? If so, that would explain those numbers.

Well Subterranean did air right in the middle of reruns, a lot of people may not even even known it was on. I don't think that Static even aired a trailer for when SV was coming back, so a lot of people assumed it wouldn't be until January? I don't think it did that badly considering

Yes (all numbers final):
Episode -- Viewers [in millions] -- Adults 18-49 [rating point]
6.01 ZOD 4.96 million -- 2.2
6.02 SNEEZE -- 4.52 million -- 2.0
6.03 WITHER -- 4.88 million -- 2.1
6.04 ARROW -- 4.71 million -- 2.0
6.05 REUNION -- 4.79 million -- 2.2
6.06 FALLOUT -- 5.01 million -- 2.1
6.07 RAGE -- 4.47 million -- 1.9
6.08 STATIC -- 4.70 million -- 2.0/5
Repeat 6.01 -- 2.01 million -- 0.8/2 (excluded from season high/lows & averages)
Repeat 6.02 -- 3.17 million -- 1.2/3 (excluded from season high/lows & averages)
6.09 SUBTERRANEAN -- 4.31 million -- 1.7

Season highs
6.06, Fallout --> 5.01 million viewers
6.01, Zod AND 6.05, Reunion --> 2.2 A18-49 Demo

Season lows
6.09, Subterranean --> 4.31 million viewers
6.09, Subterranean --> 1.7 A18-49 Demo

Season Averages
Total Viewers --> 4.71 million viewers
A18-49 Demo --> 2.0

ScrappyTheOwl - Thank you for that break down. Very interesting.

Hydro's rating, from thefutoncritic.com



ETA: I stand corrected (thanks hc_8), but as we lost Hydro's ratings, I'll keep the post anyway, so we can compare numbers and figures.

Those are the ratings for last week's episode.

From mediaweek:

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/68410882

8:00 p.m. Smallville
2.9/ 5 -- 4.97 million -- 2.2/ 6

8:30 p.m. Smallville
3.2/ 5 -- 5.53 million -- 2.4/ 6

And from Zap2it:

"'Til Death" and "The War at Home" were fourth for FOX, edging The CW's "Smallville," 3.1/5, (The CW had a few more viewers).

Which I don't understand. If The CW had more viewers then why put it at fifth?
Anyway, if you average the numbers from mediaweek, then Smallville had 5.25 million viewers.
woohoo!

The ratings number is based primarily on the number of households with a tv tuned to Smallville, the number of viewers is determined both by the number of households tuned in to the show but also the number of people in the room watching that set. So it would seem Smallville had fewer households tuned in but more people were watching in the households that tuned in than in the households tuned into FOX.

I'd say those were pretty decent numbers for Smallville this season.

I can't help but think that if the WB was still in existence, they would have promoted this episode much better and this episode would have been the highest rated episode ever.

I never even saw an ad in Entertainment Weekly for this episode. The WB always had print ads for the major episodes.

I agree. Those are pretty decent numbers (particularly the 8:30 number), but they should have been better. Still, maybe TPTB will realize that action and excitement are better for ratings than endless love triangles and longing loft looks. One may hope...

Best 18-49 ratings of the season...but I still think they are disappointing. The CW didn't do nearly enough to pull in viewers for this episode. Their advertising was lacking. This was the type of episode that could have brought in first timers or made old viewers return. Maybe they didn't care to try it, but I think they could have brought in at least another million viewers if they had put out some real advertising for the episode. It seems like they did a very half-hearted advertising effort for it especially compared to the way the WB would hype things.

I got this from the Ausiello Report at tvguide.com:
It's CW day at the TCA's, Dawn Ostroff was talking.
• Dawn's making some opening remarks. She noted that Smallville scored its best ratings of the season with last night's "Justice" episode.

I also saw on another board that she didn't say Smallville will be back next season but that you can count on it. She wants to save some announcements for the Upfronts in the spring.

According to Hollywood reporter Smallville came second yeaterday

ABC and CBS battled for bragging rights on Thursday with crowds turning out at 9 p.m. for "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Meanwhile, CW's "Smallville" hit its best numbers of the season.

ABC won the first two hours of the night in total viewers and adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. ABC's "Ugly Betty" opened up the night with 14.1 million viewers and 4.5 rating/12 share in the adults 18-49 demo. NBC's 8-9 p.m. comedies "My Name is Earl" (9.5 million, 4.4/11) and "The Office" (9.3 million, 4.5/11) were competitive in the demo derby against a "CSI" repeat (12.3 million, 3.4/9) on CBS. But NBC's momentum ebbed from 9-10 p.m. with comedies "Scrubs" (6.6 million, 2.9/7) and "30 Rock" (5.1 million, 2.4/6).

At 9 p.m. "Grey's Anatomy" (21.9 million, 8.7/20) turned in an above-average performance on the heels of its Golden Globe award win for best TV drama series. "CSI" (21.3 million, 6.9/16) was a close second, funneling a good lead-in to CBS' 10 p.m. drama "Shark" (15 million, 4.4/12). ABC's "Men in Trees" (10.7 million, 3.7/10) ran second against a repeat of NBC's "ER" (6.1 million, 2.5/7).

After raking in more than 35 million viewers on Tuesday and Wednesday for the triumphant return of "American Idol," Fox's numbers fell back down to earth Thursday with comedies "Til Death" (5.1 million, 2.1/6) and "The War at Home" (4.4 million, 1.9/5) and soon-to-depart 9 p.m. drama "The O.C." (3.9 million, 1.7/4). CW's 8 p.m. anchor "Smallville" (5.2 million, 2.6/8) reached a season high and ranked No. 2 behind NBC's comedy combo in the adult demo race.

For the night, ABC won in adults 18-49 (ABC's 5.6/14 versus CBS' 4.9/12) while CBS prevailed in viewers (16.2 million versus ABC's 15.6 million).

I'm not clear which demo they're referring to because they give the numbers for the adults (18-49) and Smallville certainly didn't come in second there but actually 4th (beating only FOX). Still not bad and I suspect in some of the more specific demo breakdowns Smallville may well have ranked higher but that article is somewhat confusing to me.

I'm guessing they meant Smallville came in second in the 18-34 demo. But, that's just a guess.

2.6 is the adults 18-34 demo. From Media Life: As gobatara previously posted, it had a 2.3/6 in the adults 18-49 demo.

Should be interesting to see how much of that audience they retain this week.

The Labyrinth trailer looked pretty good, so hopefully they won't do too badly

Labyrinth ratings from Mediaweek.com

Is this a good number?

From http://www.pifeedback.com

Episode -- Viewers [in millions] -- Adults 18-49 [rating point]
6.01 ZOD 4.96 million -- 2.2
6.02 SNEEZE -- 4.52 million -- 2.0
6.03 WITHER -- 4.88 million -- 2.1
6.04 ARROW -- 4.71 million -- 2.0
6.05 REUNION -- 4.79 million -- 2.2
6.06 FALLOUT -- 5.01 million -- 2.1
6.07 RAGE -- 4.47 million -- 1.9
6.08 STATIC -- 4.70 million -- 2.0/5
Repeat 6.01 -- 2.01 million -- 0.8/2 (excluded from season high/lows & averages)
Repeat 6.02 -- 3.17 million -- 1.2/3 (excluded from season high/lows & averages)
6.09 SUBTERRANEAN -- 4.31 million -- 1.7
6.10 HYDRO -- 4.62 million -- 2.0
6.11 JUSTICE -- 5.3 million -- 2.3
6.12 LABYRINTH -- 4.91 million -- 2.1 **NOT FINAL**

Season highs
6.11, Justice --> 5.3 million viewers
6.11, Justice --> 2.3 A18-49 Demo

Season lows
6.09, Subterranean --> 4.31 million viewers
6.09, Subterranean --> 1.7 A18-49 Demo

Season Averages
Total Viewers --> 4.71 million viewers
A18-49 Demo --> 2.0

By that estimate, Labyrinth beat the premiere and is now the third highest rated episode of the season.

Although, Smallville had almost no competition last night. ABC, CBS, and NBC all had repeats, and only half of FOX's comedy hour was new.

Yes and that was pretty much the scenario for Reunion (no competition/mostly repeats) which also did well in the ratings.

"Labyrinth" probably benefitted from the all the folks who loved "Justice' sticking around for another week.

And sadly, those same folks were driven away by the Clana for all eternity.

Poor saps tuned in to see the aftermath of the JL, but got zilch.

Probably. And there was TW in the trailer which probably also helped since he hasn't been featured as much as normal this season.

But, as I did for Justice, I can't help thinking that if they had made it clear to general viewers that Martian Manhunter was going to be in this episode that they might have pulled in better numbers. Unless you follow spoilers or media articles about the show, a viewer wouldn't have known the AfAm guy oh-so-briefly shown in the trailer was the MM. They didn't call him that in the trailer so people would know the deal. He easily could have been a random FOTW. I'm not a comic book fan, but I am excited about MM as a character. He could be something really cool on the show. I felt they could have made a bigger fuss about him.



I still feel blindsided. Everyone on my LJ friendslist expected it to be a Chlark heavy episode. Clark was going to be all Supermany and figure out a way to revive Chloe and it would end with MM and Chlark with Shelby in the barn. People were really looking forward to it which made the Clana truwuv forever declaration at the end an even more bitter WTH? pill to swallow.

Me too, Massena. I suspect that TPTB deliberately pulled a "bait and switch," luring in the Chlark fans to boost ratings by dangling the possibility of a Chlark kiss, then resurrecting the Undead Clana Monster.

The problem with a trick like that is, it's made me much less willing to give up watching UB--a show that is actually incredibly enjoyable!--to see a show that continually disappoints me. Next week, I'll be tuning in to UB, and I don't even plan on taping "Crimson."

I think that most Chlarkers should skip next week, IMHO. Actually, I'd advise most Cloisers to skip next week because the thought of Lois being branded with something of Clark and STILL dumped for Lana makes even me a non-fan of her mad. By pandering so heavily to Clanaphiles, they've already driven off quite a few non-Lana fans and I include people who really weren't fans of other ships.

It's sad, the only Smallville episode i ever skipped was Ageless (still haven't watched it to this day), and Crimson is really close to being the second. What a waste. :(

I think that next week will detemine if the Clana-ers have any kind of power over the ratings.

I think that next week will detemine if the Clana-ers have any kind of power over the ratings.

Clanaers and Cloisers as those are the people who are getting pandered to.



Well, maybe there are some Neilson boxes out there that will vote by choosing UB or the Office instead. They have a lot more competition next week so we'll see if all this "Every Clark in a Triangle!" stuff works for 'em.



That seems pretty unanimous across all the places I visit regularly too. Same with those who knew about MM; they were expecting more DCU and got... Clana.

Thing is pulling shit like that makes people angry and more likely to switch to something during that time so I don't know what they're thinking. If you're going to have a Clana-Clana-Clana episode be upfront about it, it made people more angry than they otherwise would.

I hate mint chocolate. But my dad would always sneak some mint in my hot chocolate. He thought that maybe I'd come around and like because he loved it so much. I usually ended up pouring it down the sink.

Clana is the mint chocolate of this show. You think you'll get a delicous cup of Smallville, but then...yuck! Mint chocolate!

So would this be Lois or Lex referring to Clark's uhhhhhhh...mmmmmmm..uhhhh? Well you get the idea.

Final numbers are in for Labyrinth.

5.00 Million (5,004,000 Million Viewers).

How odd. I just don't understand how episodes like Fallout and Labyrinth can beat the season premiere. Oh well.

ETA:

Week-to-Week Comparison

09/28 Zod.....................4.96 million
10/05 Sneeze...............4.52 million
10/12 Wither................4.88 million
10/19 Arrow.................4.71 million
10/26 Reunion..............4.79 million
11/02 Fallout................5.01 million
11/09 Rage...................4.46 million
11/16 Static..................4.70 million
12/07 Subterranean........4.31 million
01/11 Hydro...................4.68 million
01/18 Justice..................5.26 million
01/25 Labyrinth..............5.00 million

Apparently Labyrinth was still riding the Justice high, let's see what happens with Crimson now that they destroyed all the good faith they got from the JL. Good job, AlMiles.

Oooh, that's a dilemma. Part of me doesn't want "Crimson" to do poorly, because the beginning of this ep at least is a party for the Cloisers and that would be disappointing for them. On the other hand, it would send a good message to TPTB that the majority of the audience really DON'T want to see a Clana romance resurrected.

Got this from a poster in the Supernatural forums...



It looks like Smallville is starting to pull away...At least until ANTM returns...And I think from FEb 22 to March 8, American Idol will be on opposite the show. But I think they are going to be in reruns anyway..

Fast Track nationals from zap2it.com for Thursday 2/1/07



--fixed by omar

Wow that was quick Boss...lol..lessoned learned.

From media week....

Isn't that less than last week?

I think it is. Last week it did better than Til Death and The War At Home.

FYI, in case anyone else was wondering how the ratings compare:

6.01 ZOD 4.96 million -- 2.2
6.02 SNEEZE -- 4.52 million -- 2.0
6.03 WITHER -- 4.88 million -- 2.1
6.04 ARROW -- 4.71 million -- 2.0
6.05 REUNION -- 4.79 million -- 2.2
6.06 FALLOUT -- 5.01 million -- 2.1
6.07 RAGE -- 4.47 million -- 1.9
6.08 STATIC -- 4.70 million -- 2.0/5
Repeat 6.01 -- 2.01 million -- 0.8/2 (excluded from season high/lows & averages)
Repeat 6.02 -- 3.17 million -- 1.2/3 (excluded from season high/lows & averages)
6.09 SUBTERRANEAN -- 4.31 million -- 1.7
6.10 HYDRO -- 4.62 million -- 2.0
6.11 JUSTICE -- 5.3 million -- 2.3
6.12 LABYRINTH -- 5 million -- 2.1
6.13 CRIMSON -- 4.94 million --2.0

Season highs
6.11, Justice --> 5.3 million viewers
6.11, Justice --> 2.3 A18-49 Demo

Season lows
6.09, Subterranean --> 4.31 million viewers
6.09, Subterranean --> 1.7 A18-49 Demo

Season Averages
4.79 million viewers, 2.05 A18-49

How many clunkers will the SV audience endure and remain loyal? At least two, it seems.

For Trespass from mediaweek:


Same as last week. The breakdowns will be out in half an hour.

Prime-Time Ratings:
Thursday 2/08/07

The following results are based on the fast national ratings (Live Plus Same Day data)

-Total Viewers:
CBS: 17.84 million, ABC: 16.72, NBC: 8.78, Fox: 4.14, CW: 3.75

-Adults 18-49:
ABC: 6.5 rating/16 share, CBS: 5.6/14, NBC: 4.0/10, Fox: 1.8/ 4, CW: 1.5/ 4

----------

-Yesterday’s Winners:
Survivor: Fiji (CBS), Ugly Betty (ABC), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), CSI (CBS)

-Honorable Mention:
My Name is Earl (NBC), The Office (NBC), Shark (CBS), ER (NBC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
The War at Home (Fox), 30 Rock (NBC), The O.C. (Fox), Supernatural (CW), Men in Trees (ABC)

-Ratings Breakdown:
ABC and CBS shared leadership on this second Thursday of the Feb. 2007 sweeps, with CBS the most-watched network (1.12 million more viewers, on average, than ABC), and the alphabet net No. 1 among adults 18-49. NBC finished a typical third, followed by Fox and the CW’s combination of Smallville and Supernatural.

In season-premiere news, CBS’ Survivor: Fiji finished first in both total viewers (16.68 million) and adults 18-49, with a 5.8 rating/15 share in the demo. That beat ABC’s second-place Ugly Betty (Viewers: 14.30 million; A18-49: 4.7/12) by a healthy 2.38 million viewers and 23 percent among adults 18-49. Comparatively, the year-ago edition of Survivor: Panama opened with 19.19 million viewers and a 7.0/18 among adults 18-49 on Feb. 2, 2006, and the more recent Survivor: Cook Islands kicked-off with 17.43 million viewers and a 6.5/18 in the demo on Sept. 21, 2006. While each edition of Survivor tends to lose some steam, it remains a viable top 10-rated entity for CBS. And last night’s launch was considerably more satisfying creatively than recent editions. One look at the Sylvester Stallone clone and I knew his name had to be Rocky!

Also in the 8 p.m. hour were NBC comedies My Name is Earl (Viewers: #3, 9.56 million; A18-49: #2t, 4.2/11) and The Office (Viewers: #3, 8.85 million; A18-49: #3, 4.4/11), which are worthy of honorable mention due to the strength of the demos, the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: #5, 4.67 million; A18-49: #5, 1.8/ 5), and Fox sitcoms ‘Til Death (Viewers: #4, 5.02 million; A18-49: #4, 2.0/ 5) and The War at Home (Viewers: #5, 4.41 million; A18-49: #5, 1.9/ 5). There was nothing unusual to report from 8-9 p.m. last night.

Source: http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/55210923

1. Final number for Zod......5.0 million viewers.
2. Final number for Sneeze.....4.5 million viewers.
3. Final number for Wither 4.9 million viewers.
4. Final number for Arrow....4.7 million viewers.
5. Final number for Reunion....4.8 million viewers.
6. Final number for Fallout...5.0 million viewers.
7. Final number for Rage......4.5 million viewers.
8. Final number for Static......4.7 million viewers.
9. Final number for Subterranean......4.3 million viewers.
10. Final number for Hydro......4.7 million viewers.
11.Final number for Justice..........5.3 million viewers.
12. Final number for Labyrinth..........5.0 million viewers.
13. Final number for Crimson ...........5.0 million viewers.

14. Numbers for Trespass.....................4.67 million viewers

That's the kind of drop I suspected when the trailer made it so obvious that it was going to be all about Lana. here's hoping next weeks gets a jump, because it does look good. I feel sorry for Supernatural..Last nights episode was great and it is just drowning in that time slot. They need to move the show to another night..Preferably back to tuesdays.

I just went to look for those, I see I was too slow.

Those demo numbers are bad. The demos have gone down every week since Justice. That's not a good trend. And Nielsen has finally started including college students who live on campus in their numbers so the demos were expected to go UP significantly for CW shows since January.

Isn't next week likely to do a lot worse? I know that episodes like Spell and Ageless always saw ratings affected for the following week. Just as Justice saw ratings improve for a while

Unfortunately, yes, I would expect the trend to continue. It's hard to break a negative trend.

And just to have them, here's the zap2it.com report: