movieking

Great news! Without A Trace is definitely the superior program right now.

(Friday, September 24 02:39 PM)
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) It was an upset almost a year-and-a-half in the making. After two summers of pummeling NBC's "ER" and a long season of closing the ratings gap, CBS' "Without a Trace" finally broke through on Thursday (Sept. 23) night.

In a much vaunted head-to-head match-up the third season premiere of "Without a Trace" trounced the eleventh season premiere of "ER." For the first time in the show's long and esteemed history, an original episode of "ER" lost to another drama in total viewers.

The "Trace" triumph capped a strong night for CBS as the network won a premiere Thursday in total viewers for the first time since Nielsen's introduction of people meters and among adults 18-49 for the first time since the opening week of the 1990 season, when the network's offerings -- the two-hour premiere of "The Flash" and "Knots Landing" -- were quite different.

Last September, when "ER" and "Without a Trace" premiered, the NBC medical drama drew 23.2 million viewers, compared to the respectable 16.7 million for the CBS forensic series. On Thursday, "Without a Trace" was up to 21.5 million viewers and "ER" slipped to 19.7 million viewers.

NBC is quick to note that even in defeat overall, "ER" still had a 9.8 rating among adults 18-49, beating the 7.4 demographic rating for "Without a Trace." The network fails to mention that while the 32 percent margin of victory is plenty healthy, the gap was some 88 percent last fall at this time. After launching 7.4 ratings points behind "ER" in 2002 and improving to less than 5 ratings points behind last year, "Without a Trace" is now within 2.4 points in the demographic the networks crave.

NBC also argues that "Without a Trace" lost a significant portion of the lead given to it by the premiere of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which is a cute way for the network to deal with how "CSI" crushed NBC's "The Apprentice." The "CSI" premiere, destined to be the week's most watched program, pulled in 30.57 million viewers, nearly twice the 15.9 million who watched "The Apprentice" and nearly 4 million more than watched last season's premiere. The Donald won't even be able to claim being No. 1 among adults 18-49 anymore, because "CSI" did an 11.4 rating in that demo, safely ahead of the 8.0 for "The Apprentice."

Working backwards, CBS also won easily at 8 p.m. with the 19.14 million viewers for "Survivor: Vanuatu," better than the 14.9 million for "Joey" and the 15.3 million for "Will & Grace."

Goldberg74

w/oAT is one of the (if not the) best show on TV.

This is great to hear, I plan on watching the season premiere tonight. I'm looking forward to it.

And if you look at the numbers, it passed up CSI viewers to viewers. That means that after Survivor, about 2M people tuned into w/oAT.

B.A.

Pharoh

Very good to hear this.

Jackskeleton

Not surprising considering the line up.

Survivor followed by CSI: Not a spin off and leading into Without a trace. It's a solid night block.

Red Dog

It was only a matter of time.

Michael Corvin

You've gotta hand it to ER though, it has taken 11 years to topple. Even MASH and Cheers dropped off in their final years. It is still a solid show, just a tad different than what it originally was.

They need to get back to the roots of the show, you know, actual patients. Other than the car wreck I only remember seeing one patient during the premier, the guy dying from cancer. It is too much of a soap opera lately. Fortunately they have tied up about 99% of the plots left hanging last year. Maybe this will free them up to concentrate on patients.

I've never seen w/oAT. Always wanted to check it out, though. I've been in the ER since day one and I'm staying until the end.

Jadzia

ER is still on the air?

Matthew Chmiel

Well I believe that Without a Trace is a piece of shit and that ER is a good show.

But you gotta admit, it's amazing to see a show that's been one of the highest rated shows for a decade to be beaten by a show in only it's third year. I might think the shows a piece of shit, but props to the gang at Without a Trace. They must be doing something right...

I'm not giving any props to CBS, because CBS fucking sucks with the exception of The Amazing Race.

Cornholio

thats suprising.

B.A.

TNT begins showing W/out A Trace on Monday, the 27th (tomorrow night), @ 11/10 p.m. Central. They are starting w/ the show's premier.

Michael Corvin

B.A. thanks. Heading to tivo.com to set it up.

edit..

Sweet, just went to set it up and I can get it in HD on TNT.

Rogue588

A difference of 1.8 million viewers is a "trouncing"? Got it.

Now, if the numbers from last September came into play [er's 23.2m v Without A Trace's 16.7m] THEN I could see it being labelled a "trouncing".

But, whatever.

Though, Without A Trace should definitely get props for upping their audience by 4.8 million since last season. Guess it was all those $11.99 season one sets that Circuit City sold...

movieking

The reason that WAT is beating ER is because of the reruns during the summer. WAT tells a whole story within one hour (except for the threads of information we find out about the agents) and it makes it very easy to watch in reruns, growing the audience. ER is more of a serial drama, and it is harder to just pick it up in reruns. Once more people saw WAT, they realized it was a superior show to ER (IMO), and they stuck with it for the opener to see how it goes. I think that it will continue to win.

riley_dude

It's funny. I dont know anyone who watched ER. It is time for it to go away.

Red Dog

I think it also has something to do with a little show called CSI being on before it. CSI easily beat The Apprentice last week.

Rogue588

But, but, but...Donald said that the Apprentice is the highest rated show since television was created...