Ratings Archive by Season

Click on a Year to see a list of all its archived weeks on this blog.

Note: From 1992-93 onward, weeks are only marked as completed once there is both broadcast and cable data posted. Between the 2013-14 and 2020-21 seasons, the number of "weeks archived" only reflects those weeks in which both data has been posted. There are numerous weeks that only have broadcast data available right now as cable charts takes longer to make. 

FULL TV SEASONS

SeasonRatingsWeeks
Archived
1950-1959CLICK TO SEE RATINGS226/230
1960-1961CLICK TO SEE RATINGS30/48
1961-1962CLICK TO SEE RATINGS28/48
1962-1963CLICK TO SEE RATINGS34/48
1963-1964CLICK TO SEE RATINGS32/48
1964-1965CLICK TO SEE RATINGS32/48
1965-1966CLICK TO SEE RATINGS32/48
1966-1967CLICK TO SEE RATINGS32/48
1967-1968CLICK TO SEE RATINGS48/48
1968-1969CLICK TO SEE RATINGS48/48
1969-1970CLICK TO SEE RATINGS48/48
1970-1971CLICK TO SEE RATINGS32/48
1971-1972COMING SOON0/48
1972-1973CLICK TO SEE RATINGS32/48
1973-1974COMING SOON0/52
1974-1975COMING SOON0/52
1975-1976COMING SOON0/52
1976-1977COMING SOON0/52
1977-1978CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
1978-1979CLICK TO SEE RATINGS51/52
1979-1980CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
1980-1981CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
1981-1982CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1982-1983CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1983-1984CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
1984-1985CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1985-1986CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
1986-1987CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1987-1988CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1988-1989CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1989-1990
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1990-1991
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
1991-1992
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1992-1993
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1993-1994
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1994-1995
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1995-1996
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1996-1997CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
1997-1998CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1998-1999
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
1999-2000
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS54/54
2000-2001
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS51/51
2001-2002
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2002-2003
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2003-2004
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2004-2005
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2005-2006
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2006-2007
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS53/53
2007-2008
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2008-2009
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2009-2010
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2010-2011
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS9/52
2011-2012
COMING SOON0
2012-2013
COMING SOON0
2013-2014
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS12/52
2014-2015
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS17/52
2015-2016
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS40/52
2016-2017
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS0/53
2017-2018
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2018-2019
CLICK TO SEE RATINGS16/52
2019-2020CLICK TO SEE RATINGS17/52
2020-2021CLICK TO SEE RATINGS52/52
2021-2022CLICK TO SEE RATINGS42/42

Total Weeks Archived: 2,409

Note: because of the 2000 Summer Olympics, the 2000-01 TV season was pushed back a week and as a result only had 51 weeks, while the 1999-00 season had an extended 54 weeks.

30 comments:

  1. I have nielsen ratings for entire 1985-86 and 86 TV season but unfortunately I can't find viewership numbers for 87-88 and 88-89 TV season.

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    1. I believe the first time that viewership figures were available in USA Today was the week ending July 31, 1988 which would be the very end of the 1987-88 season. I think I have the HH ratings/shares for the 1985-86, 1986-87, and 1987-88 seasons, but for 1988-89, I need to get to a library at some point to grab those USA Todays on microfilm, but can't do that yet until COVID restrictions go away unfortunately.

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  2. I have viewership numbers for premiere week of 87-88 TV season (both Cosby and ADW had 43.4 million viewers) and HH rating/share (but without number of viewers). Data for both weeks are from USA Today.

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    1. Hi, if you are willing to share your data, please feel free to email me at: consultantsmtl@gmail.com. I don't have any USA Todays prior to Sept 1989, so anything you have would be very helpful. I just put together & posted the weekly results for 1985-86. They are all in HH because that's all I have, but if you have the viewership numbers for those years (I didn't think those were available?), I'd love to have those as well.

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    2. Viewership numbers started with 1987-88 season, I'll send you HH and shares for 1986-87 TV season and first 2 weeks from 87-88 from USA Today. I can't access ProQuest therefore I can't get my hand on USA Today articles on nielsen ratings for 87-88 and 88-89 TV season.

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    3. Wow! Since Cheers was on the same day as Cosby's premiere of that season, do you mind sharing how many viewers the season 6 premiere of Cheers had? Assuming the data exists of course.

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    4. Hi, please note that the viewership for the 1987-88 TV season does not come from Nielsen. Nielsen did not begin releasing viewership figures until July 1988, so for the 1987-88 season USA Today used viewership from a different company called AGB Television Research. With that being said, on September 25, 1987 "Cheers" had 37.4 million viewers (AGB) and a 28.4/44 HH rating (Nielsen).

      I have not published data for the 1987-88 season yet because I have not yet decided whether or not to include the AGB numbers. I am inclined not to because I want all the data here to be from Nielsen, but I may change my mind on that, so we'll see. In the meantime, if there are any additional numbers you want from either 1987-88 or 1988-89, just let me know!

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  3. Thanks for the info! I can understand why you would not want to include them, as it's best to have a consistent source.

    With that being said, I certainly wish you'd reconsider. After all, AGB was the only source for viewership for the 1987-1988 season, so in that case, we wouldn't really have another choice (Nielsen) to compare against.

    Now, I wonder, how come the total viewers for the M*A*S*H finale, for example, are known? Was that calculated by a different source than Nielsen? Cause if it was Nielsen, were they only doing so for big events? Just something I have been wondering.

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    1. If I recall correctly, Nielsen didn't launch the people meter until 1987 so all viewership figures prior to that would be purely estimates derived from the total number of households. So for M*A*S*H finale, the ~106 million figure is an estimate of the average viewers and the ~121 million figure is an estimate of the total number of unduplicated viewers I believe.

      And yeah I hear what you're saying. If you want the AGB figures included then I can certainly do that with a clarification included in the post. The only issue is that I don't actually have the physical USA Today clippings from either 1987-88 or 1988-89, just the raw data in a digital format on Excel, so it will take some time to format correctly and then figure out how to best present it. I will probably pick up working on that when I finish up with the summer 1999 weeklys.

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  4. Are full weekly ratings before 1981 available on Los Angeles Times or some other newspaper?

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    1. With a few sporadic exceptions, the week of Apr. 13-19, 1981 was essentially the very first week that full weekly ratings were published. Prior to that, the LA Times published only the top 10 (I believe). I have the full weekly rankings (without the ratings) for most of the weeks of 1980-81 and I have the ratings for the top 20 & bottom 5 for each week of that season. Still building out ratings for earlier seasons, but I'm hoping to have the top 15 weekly programs for most of the weeks of the 1970s.

      The one exception is the 1972-73 season (Oct. 1972-Apr. 1973) where there actually are full weekly ratings available for most weeks. I will post those at some point.

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    2. Do you have numbers (rating and share) for Rhoda's wedding. On wiki it says "it had become the second most-watched television episode of all time, surpassed only by the birth of Little Ricky on I Love Lucy in 1953". I found the list of most watched TV episodes, there are few Beverly Hillbilies episodes, The Cosby Show (41.3 rating) but no Rhoda, so I assumed that numbers for that episodes weren't that high.

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    3. Hi, yes: "Rhoda's Wedding" (Oct. 28, 1974) was the top-rated program in the week ending Nov. 3, 1974. It had a 35.1 rating/51 share and 24 million households. The first-half hour did a 34.6/50 and the second half-hour did a 35.6/53

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    4. Thank you for Rhoda's wedding numbers. Do you have ratings for episodes of ST:TNG that are missing on its wiki paige: 2x3: Elementary, Dear Data, 2x4: The Outrageous Okona, 3x1: The Ensigns of Command, 4x22: Half a Life, 5x1: Redemption, Part II and 5x2: Darmok?

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    5. Hi, unfortunately I don't. I checked the source from the Wiki page and I don't know where those numbers were compiled from. I'm sure they're correct, but I don't know what the original source was. The only place I've been able to find weekly syndication ratings in that period is from the old archives of Variety magazine, and Variety did not report every single week. Also did a check of some other publications and also was unable to dig anything up. Sorry!

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  5. Hi,

    Do you have syndicated ratings from the 80s? And any daytime soap opera ratings from tbe 80s?

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    1. Hi, I have some of that data. I don't think syndicated data was reported weekly until the late 1980s and before then I believe they were only posted on a monthly bases. Is there a particular show you're looking for?

      As for soap operas, this forum: https://boards.soapoperanetwork.com/forum/46-198039s/, has the yearly average ratings for Soaps from the 1980s, but I don't think the ratings were posted on a weekly basis back then unfortunately. But again, if there's a particular show you're interested in, I can see what's available.

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  6. Yes I was interested on how well Star Search did in syndication.

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  7. Do you have syndicated ratings for Xena Warrior Princess?

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    1. Here are all the Xena ratings I have for the week of 6/6-6/12:

      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/07/2022 12:00 AM..0.06/253K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/07/2022 1:00 AM....0.03/187K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/07/2022 2:00 AM....0.02/110K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/07/2022 3:00 AM....0.02/104K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/07/2022 4:00 AM....0.02/99K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/07/2022 5:00 AM....0.02/79K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/08/2022 6:00 AM....0.03/95K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/08/2022 7:00 AM....0.03/89K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/08/2022 8:00 AM....0.02/80K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/08/2022 9:00 AM....0.02/78K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/08/2022 10:00 AM..0.02/71K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/08/2022 11:00 AM..0.03/122K
      XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS SYFY 06/08/2022 12:00 PM..0.03/129K

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  8. Thanks for all the ratings and viewership content . Do you have any viewership numbers for nfl afc/nfc championship games from the 70s to 90s. Seen ratings but hard to find final viewership numbers.

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  9. Hi, I was wondering if you could get 18-49 ratings past the 1999-2000 season. If I recall correctly, I think the Hollywood Reporter listed ratings before then. Is it possible you could get those listings from when they started to list ratings from that demographic? Thanks.

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    1. Hi, The Hollywood Reporter began their ratings charts with the week of Jan. 22-28, 1996 but they only published the HH rating/share for each program of the week. The only 18-49 data they published was for the top 10 programs each week until the start of the 1999-00 season when it switched to publishing 18-49 for every show. I only have those old ratings charts because I went to the NYPL archives and went through boxes of physical hard copies last fall. So, yeah at some point I will hopefully be able to go back there and get the older stuff (and update the posts here accordingly), but unfortunately that's the only way I can get those charts since I don't have access to the online database they are stored in.

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    2. Out of curiosity, what ratings do you have for the 1970-71 TV season?

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    3. I haven't put too much effort into digging up the 1970-71 season in Newspapers as I'm chasing down some leads for pocket pieces, but I currently have top 10s or top 20s for about 11 weeks

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    4. First off, thank you for replying to me at all. No need to apologize.

      I went through newspapers.com, and clipped several weeks of 1970-71, as well as a number of those from the late 60's and early 70's.

      Links to the clippings can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_U.S._television_ratings_archives

      My newspapers.com account can be found here as well: https://www.newspapers.com/profile/hlengelruns/

      Also, the following source has a high amount of Nielsen ratings data since 1983-84, and might be useful for the periods that are more recent that you haven't filled in yet: http://www.tvtango.com/

      I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but those are the links regardless.

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    5. Hi, thank you for your clipping efforts! I used a lot of the links from that page to do my weekly top 10s from the 1950s - it's a really great resource. For some reason, in the early and mid-1970s, the Associated Press would list the top 10 Nielsen programs, but wouldn't provide the actual numerical ratings. And I really prefer to post the weeks that have the actual ratings, so I'm exploring some other resources to fill the 1970s.

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  10. Hi Ryan,

    My apologies if this comment becomes redundant. Out of curiosity, if I have or am aware of information related to TV seasons that I don't see listed here, what would be the best way for me to send it to you?

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    1. Hello, sorry for my late reply - I've been out of the country for a bit. If you see the "Contact Me" form in the sidebar of the site, please send me an email through there and I'll be in touch!

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  11. I love your site, it's an invaluable resource! Do you have any ratings information from Baywatch's syndicated years?

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