Entries from January 2009 ↓

Viewers: 10.75 million. Down a million from last week, but facing strong competition from Fox (which debuted its House/24 Monday lineup last night), CBS was down about a million viewers on average last night. This is the third largest audience this season, behind Little Minnesota and Benefits.

Adults 18-49: 4.5/11

Adults 18-34: 3.6/9

Adults 25-54: No idea – CBS didn’t issue a press release this week. (There wouldn’t be much to say other than “Fox won.”)

Households: 6.2/9 – tied with Benefits for the season high.

Compared to other networks: Second to House in every way. HIMYM got better 18-49 numbers than anything that wasn’t House or Two and a Half Men and better 18-34 numbers than everything but House and the fourth half hour of The Bachelor.

Compared to other CBS comedies: Third in viewers, second in 18-49, first in 18-34, third in households.

Sources: PIFeedback, Zap2It, TV By the Numbers.

Barney’s Blog: No update yet.

HIMYM Style identified some of the clothes from the episode here.

Recaps and reviews:

• TV Squad
• Alan Sepinwall
• Zap2It

Clips from the episode – try this if you’re outside the United States:

Continue reading →

He’s 29 today.

• Laura Prepon (of That 70s Show and October Road) has signed on for five episodes (likely starting with 4.17). Information about her appearance can be found here. [Thanks to Kayla for the news!]
• Mike from Midwesterner’s Guide to Living in New York City interviewed Josh Radnor – you can read it here.
• There’s now a red-band trailer for I Love You, Man. The official, HQ version is here, but the age-verification system isn’t perfect (I couldn’t get to the trailer) so you might need to check it out on YouTube instead:
  
• Post-SNL wrap-up: Entertainment Weekly has posted a previously unpublished interview with NPH, Hulu uploaded the digital short and Whopper Virgins sketch, Anthony Rapp reacts, SNL saw its best ratings since the election (and better ratings than anything last season), and here’s another pre-show interview, this time with Access Hollywood:
  
• The only HIMYM “news” to come out of the CBS press tour is that Sarah Chalke probably isn’t coming back.
• Two new Dr. Horrible shirts, but NPH says there currently aren’t any plans for a sequel.
• Bob Saget, aka Future Ted, is suing David Bernstein over his movie Farce of the Penguins, which also featured Alyson Hannigan.

The episode is now titled “Barney Stinson: That Guy’s Awesome.” Surprisingly, the press release [for once] contains new information. Continue reading →

If you pay any attention to ratings at all, you’ll know that Fox, while it doesn’t have much going for it in the fall other than baseball and House, happily spends January through May mercilessly crushing everyone else. And 24‘s first Monday airing in two years was last night, which is why it’s kind of awesome that HIMYM actually saw its best numbers of the season (and in some cases, of the series) last night.

Viewers: 11.76 million. This is up about 400K from Little Minnesota, and the show’s second-largest audience ever, falling only half a million viewers behind The Pineapple Incident.

Adults 18-49: 4.8/12 – this is a series high. [The previous series high: Little Minnesota.]

Adults 18-34: 4.0/10 – second highest ever, slightly down from Little Minnesota’s 4.2/11.

Adults 25-54: 5.4/12 – this matches the series high.

Households: 6.8/10 – season high, best since the S2 premiere.

Compared to other networks: HIMYM lost to 24 in households and viewers, but won its timeslot in 18-49, 18-34, and 25-54. Like Little Minnesota before it, Benefits pulled in the best 18-34 numbers of anything on any network last night.

Compared to other CBS comedies: CBS doesn’t even mention Worst Week in its press release, which is odd because even though it lost a third of Two and a Half Men’s audience, it didn’t tank too badly. Anyway: HIMYM was third in viewers (TBBT edged it out by about 50K), third in households, probably second in 25-54 (without data on Worst Week I can’t be sure, but based on WW’s other numbers it didn’t beat HIMYM here), second in 18-49, and first in 18-34.

CBS spins it:

“How I Met Your Mother” Hits Another Series Best Adult 18-49 Delivery and Second Largest Audience Ever

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER was first in adults 25-54 (5.4/12), adults 18-49 (4.8/12), adults 18-34 (4.0/10) and second in households (6.8/10, -0.1 behind FOX) and viewers (11.76m, -0.15m behind FOX).  This is HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER’s best delivery to date in adults 18-49, matched series high in adults 25-54, posted the second best viewers and adults 18-34 totals and was the best household performance since Sept. 18, 2006.

Sources: PIFeedback, Zap2It, CBS, TV By the Numbers.

Barney’s Blog: Uncle Barney’s Mail Sack

HIMYM Style’s outfit IDs for the episode can be found here – there’s one for now, but there are usually more updates throughout the day.

Recaps and reviews:

• Zap2It
• TV Squad
• AV Club
• TV Guide
• Cultural Learnings
• Be Awesome Instead

No YouTube videos from CBS yet, sadly, but they do have a bunch of clips from the episode (and some behind the scenes stuff with the guest stars) at the official site.

“The Best Burger in New York” will reair on January 26.

This will air before The Leap, which was 4.15 but is currently numberless. [On a related note, there's also been an update to those spoilers.]

Continue reading →

THE GANG REFUSES TO LET A BLIZZARD RUIN THEIR RITUALS OF HAVING FUN, ON “HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER,” MONDAY, JAN. 19

“Three Days of Snow” – When A blizzard shuts down the city, Marshall and Lily try to continue their longstanding airport reunion tradition while Ted and Barney volunteer to keep MacLaren’s open so they can meet up with some college girls, on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Monday, Jan. 19 (8:30-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.  Continue reading →