So let's take a look at the first full week of the new fall season from a ratings perspective. Based on Nielsen numbers here's what occurred this past week. These are my interpretations of the numbers so far.

The nightly winners seem to be NBC and FOX Sundays, FOX because of House and CBS on Mondays, CBS on Tuesdays, FOX, CBS, and ABC really close on Wednesdays, ABC and CBS on Thursdays, and finally CBS on Fridays.

Sunday:

Sunday Night Football on NBC continues to be the leading programming on this night it leads all time slots top to bottom. It's the second place finishers we're interested in on this night. As Sunday night Prime time starts an hour earlier CBS' 60 Minutes with the football lead in won second this hour. Second place in the 8/7C time slot was followed up by The Simpsons and The Cleveland Show. The 9/8C second place slot was taken by Family Guy the first half hour and Desperate Housewives from 9:30 on. Finally Brothers and Sister finished second at 10/9C as Cold Case was dismal.

The Amazing Race and Cold Case were on the bottom of the ratings with Cold Case's numbers especially low. Overall a number of premieres numbers were down including Desperate Housewives.

Monday

FOX secured the ratings lead for the first hour of prime time with House tonight. It continues to keep impressive numbers. The rest of the night was taken by the CBS lineup Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and CSI: Miami. ABC's Dancing with the Stars came in second for the first two hours except for the 8/7C first half hour. How I met Your Mother took second there. There was a drop off for Accidentally on Purpose.

Both Lie to Me and Trauma had disappointing premieres with Lie to Me's slightly better. Castle's numbers were not great for 10/9C even though the show pulls 9.5 million households and the 18-49 numbers were only 2.3 which were the same as Trauma. Those numbers are still better than the last season of Boston Legal though or anything else that has run in the time slot recently. Leno came in last with 1.8 18-49 and 5.6 million households still good enough to make money.

Tuesday

CBS continues to blow the numbers out on Tuesday. NCIS, NCIS: LA and The Good Wife all won their slots from a viewer perspective though The Biggest Loser did surpass NCIS: LA in its last half hour. NCIS pulled almost 20 million households again this night. NCIS: LA pulled 17 million and The Good Wife around 13.

The low end of the spectrum was Melrose Place with dismal numbers at 0.8 18-49 with about 1.5 million households. Those are bad Friday viewer numbers! The forgotten also was pretty pathetic. It lost the last time slot to Leno and had 2.0 18-49 with over 7 million households. If you average Leno's two half hours he ran about a 2.3 18-49 with about 6.5 million households.

Wednesday

This was a much more interesting night. In the 8/7C hour So You Think You Can Dance took the hour. Nothing else really stood out except for a little numbers rebound for ABC with The Middle at 8:30. In the 9/8C time hour the biggest numbers were put up by Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Criminal Minds. ABC and CBS sort of shared this hour with Criminal Minds beating the other two in Households, but the 18-49 numbers were all around 3.6 to 3.7 for all three shows. Glee on FOX also pulled the fifth best numbers in households and tied for fourth in 18-49 viewers for the night. I'd say they are happy with that. CSI: NY won the 10/9C time slot with identical ratings to Glee but households close to 13 million making it second to Criminal Minds for the night.

The Hank premiere was disappointing in numbers. Mercy continues to get bad numbers as well. The Melrose Place repeat was unwatched. Everything else was mediocre at best with Gary Unmarried probably performing better than most. Eastwick had a 2.4 18-49, but with only around 6.6 million households. All three 10/9C ABC shows on Monday thru Wednesday are in danger Castle, the forgotten, and Eastwick. Still Eastwick beat Leno who pulled a 1.9 and around 6 million households still within favorable numbers for him.

Thursday

Now for the biggest night of TV. In the 8/7C time slot Survivor and FlashForward both held their own with almost identical numbers. Bones held its own in this time slot as well with decent numbers in third. Even though it came in last for the hour The Vampire Diaries continues to pull the best numbers for CW on any night. Grey's Anatomy took the 9/8C time slot followed by good/decent numbers for CSI, The Office, and Community. CSI has slipped some from previous ratings and Grey's does seem to be now ABC's strongest show. Supernatural again last in its time slot is holding steady making Thursday surprisingly the best night of TV for the CW. In the final hour The Practice easily won the time slot beating The Mentalist which still had good numbers. The Practice's numbers were one of the few premieres that were up!

SNL, Parks & Recreations, and to a lesser degree Fringe had disappointing numbers for Thursday. FOX says the numbers are better than other shows they've had in that time slot so they are happy supposedly. It will be interesting to see what will happen with Community moving to 8/7C and 30 Rock returning this week. Leno pulled a 1.6 18-49 and about 5 million viewers. Supposedly this is still acceptable numbers for him.

Friday

The death night of television and it is still acting like it. The night was won by CBS with The Ghost Whisper, Medium, and Numb3rs. Dateline NBC at 9/8C and 20/20 on ABC at 10/9C also had good numbers. Matter of fact 20/20 just about tied Numb3rs.

Dollhouse, Brothers, and Til' Death all pulled a 0.8 and under 3 million households. That's just plain horrible. Smallville was just as bad with 0.9 and the same under 3 million households. Dollhouse was the worse with only 2.09 households viewing in. Based on this we can assume unless things change all of these shows are in their last years or months. The ABC repeats of FlashForward and the forgotten were forgotten. J Leno still pulled a 1.5 18-49 and 5.5 million on this the lowest viewed night of TV. You have to wonder how many people were watching the Stargate: Universe two hour premiere over on Syfy.

Contributions come from Nielsen and TVbytheNumbers.com for their rating information and I am assuming the reporting information is correct at the time I am writing this.

I hope you aren't getting bored with my interest in the TV ratings and how they work? In my next blog I will give my view on what may be cancelled and why based on the numbers and the ways some people read them.

Thanks for reading...

Jeffery