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.