There Are Good Reasons CBS Dominates The American TV Nielsen Ratings

Below are the Nielsen Ratings for the week ending December 21, 2014. This was the last week before TV went into mostly re-run and specials mode, due to Christmas.

Has CBS ever dominated the ratings at the level CBS is currently beating ABC, NBC and FOX?

Previously I blogged about being perplexed as to Why Must We Now Have A TV Provider To Watch Most Network & Cable TV Online? 

In that blog post I made note of the fact that CBS was not playing along with the insistence that one needed to log in to ones TV cable provider in order to watch a CBS show online, on ones smart phone or on a tablet.

In addition to not requiring a cable provider, CBS is now also going the Netflix-type route with the option of giving viewer's next day online access to current programs along with access to the entire CBS library dating back to the age of I Love Lucy in the 1950s.

CBS next day and library access cost $5.99 a month.

CBS seems to play the TV game much smarter than the other networks. And I am not just referencing the quality of the CBS programming.

For instance, before I bailed on the AT & T U-Verse service CBS had caused me to get hooked on multiple CBS shows I had not had a habit of watching. Shows such as CSI, NCIS,  NCIS: Los Angeles, Undercover Boss, Hawaii Five-O, Bluebloods, Elementary and others.

How did CBS cause me to watch its shows on AT & T U-Verse? Well, with the CBS version of Viewing On Demand, on AT & T, CBS had minimal commercials, with most of those being promos for other CBS shows. Plus CBS allowed fast forwarding. None of the other On Demand networks allowed fast forwarding. Eventually, prior to cancelling U-Verse, CBS had joined the others in disabling fast forwarding.

Or maybe AT & T did the disabling.

Anyway, it is no surprise to me that CBS is by far the dominant American TV Network.

Rank	Shows	R=Repeat S=Special P=Premiere	Net	Viewers (Live +SD) (000)
1	NBC Sunday Night Football-12/21		NBC	19293
2	NCIS-12/16		CBS	17530
3	NCIS: NEW ORLEANS-12/16		CBS	14137
4	60 Minutes-12/21		CBS	13179
5	CBS+NFLN SAT NT FOOTBALL-12/20	S	CBS	12962
6	VOICE-TUE-12/16		NBC	12880
7	VOICE-12/15		NBC	12074
8	Big Bang Theory, THE-12/18	R	CBS	10605
9	SCORPION-12/15		CBS	10070
10	MOM-12/18		CBS	10011
11	SURVIVOR-12/17		CBS	9786
12	FOOTBALL NT AMERICA PT 3-12/21		NBC	9713
13	NCIS: LOS ANGELES-12/15		CBS	9542
14	Person Of Interest-12/16		CBS	8937
15	Two and a Half Men-12/18		CBS	8796
16	Mentalist, THE-12/21		CBS	8677
17	Undercover Boss 12/21-SP-12/21	S	CBS	8189
18	MIKE & MOLLY-12/15		CBS	7849
19	2 Broke Girls-12/15		CBS	7807
20	Elementary-12/18		CBS	7574
21	MICHAEL BUBLE XMAS IN NY-12/17	S	NBC	7528
22	CSI-12/21		CBS	7340
23	SURVIVOR REUNION-12/17	S	CBS	7310
24	MCCARTHYS, THE-12/18		CBS	6941
25	Dateline FRI-12/19		NBC	6768

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CBS Ends Production of Two and a Half Men After Charlie Sheen's Latest Bad Behavior

I had not watched Two and a Half Men for years. And then I got TV on Demand via AT & T's U-Verse. CBS is the only one of the networks to be on AT & T's on Demand list.

Which has caused me to watch CBS shows I'd otherwise not watched.

When I first watched Two and a Half Men again I was surprised to see that Jake is no long a half man.

But, more than Jake being all grown up I was surprised at how, well, raunchy an American TV Sit-Com is in 2011.

During the Seinfeld era I was a faithful TV sitcom viewer. When Seinfeld and Friends left the air it was the end of Must See TV for me on Thursdays. And thus the end of watching sitcoms til now.

Two and a Half Men has not been producing new shows ever since Charlie Sheen's hospitalization last month, followed by supposed re-hab. At home.

And now CBS and Warner Bros. Television have halted production of TV's #1 sitcom for the season, due to  the "totality of Charlie Sheen's statements, conduct and condition."

The statements being referred to were some bad things Charlie Sheen said about his show's executive producer, Chuck Lorre during a radio interview with someone named Alex Jones.

Charlie Sheen's radio remarks are being compared to Mel Gibson's anti-Semetic rant to a traffic cop.

Charlie compounded his problem, after the CBS decision, by sending  an "open letter" to TMZ in which he called Lorre a "contaminated little maggot" among other things.

Charlie also delusionally called on his fans to start a protest movement for him.

At the end of last season Charlie Sheen signed a two year contract that pays him about $1.8 million per episode.

How can someone make that type money doing something fun, like being on a hit sitcom? And then still be so miserable that drugs and alcohol are needed to make you happy?

Or possibly insane.

Sheen made multiple references to violence, calling himself the new sheriff in town, with an "army of assassins."

And that, "If you love with violence and you hate with violence, there's nothing that can be questioned."

Almost $2 million an episode. And insane.

The Amazing Race: Season 14 Starts Sunday February 15

On Thursday I was caught by surprise with Survivor already back on the air. Seems like it was just yesterday that Bob won the million on Survivor: Gabon. It was Bob who won, wasn't it?

And now this morning I learn that tomorrow at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central a new The Amazing Race starts up. I'm starting to have TV overload. I don't know if I could manage it without than newfangled miracle worker known as a DVR. I'm amazed that this is now the 14th running of The Amazing Race. It is so popular in other countries and consistently wins Emmy Awards, that I guess CBS thinks it's a good idea to keep The Amazing Race running.

Way back in 2004 a former friend of mine and I decided to try out for The Amazing Race. But first she had to get in shape and lose a lot of weight. Now, 5 years later, The Amazing Race is still running strong, while my former friend has doubled, maybe tripled in size. I need a new racing partner. I'm taking applications.

Looking at the racers it would appear that once again we have no alpha male pairs of the sort that too often dominated earlier races. There are 2 male pairing, one a dad and son, the other pair may have been alpha males in their prime, but this pair of brother are in the half century old zone.

I do not remember, in past Amazing Races, knowing where the Pit Stops were and what countries would be raced through, prior to the race starting.

But, according to the CBS Amazing Race website, the race starts in Los Angeles, goes to Stechelberg, Switzerland, then Salzburg, Austria, Bran, Romania, Novosibirsk, Russian, south to Jaipur, India (ugh, India), then to Phuket, Thailand (didn't that place get wiped out by the Tsunami?), north to Bangkok, Thailand (been there, done that), further north to Gublin, China, followed by 2 Pit Stops in Beijing, before making a mad dash back to the good ol' United States of America for a finish on Maui in Hawaii.

Of all the countries in this new race, I don't recollect The Amazing Race running to Romania before. The other countries I believe we have been to. I think they always throw India into the mix, due to India reliably providing a good dose of extreme culture shock that can be both disgusting and highly entertaining. Let's hope this time it leans toward the entertaining side of the scale more than the disgusting.