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.
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.
Remember, Neil Patrick Harris is hosting Saturday Night Live tonight.
CBS has posted a video of the Benefits guest stars talking about…well, they’re mostly just talking about themselves. Some episode clips, but nothing that wasn’t in the Watch With Kristin set of videos.
MTV’s been interviewing Neil (and musical guest Taylor Swift) at SNL all week - you can read their coverage and see videos here, here, and here, where he talks about the Golden Globes.
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star Jason Segel tried to play it cool. “Brad Pitt and Angelina showed up, and you think you don’t care,” he told MTV News. “But you totally care! You get a tingle.”
A second roundup will follow later tonight or possibly in the morning, with Jason Segel at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Neil’s pre-SNL press, and a bunch of other stuff.
This week’s OK Magazine contains an item on Josh Radnor and Lindsay Price, whom he’s reportedly been dating for a few months. (This isn’t the first time they’ve been linked - Us Weekly mentioned it back in November, around the time this was in People.) Lindsay Price is on Lipstick Jungle, but you might remember her better from the Season Three episode Spoiler Alert:
Starpulse will be interviewing Josh sometime soon - if you have any questions to suggest, post them here. The interview has already taken place - it’ll be posted next week.
There are some new photos from Cobie’s upcoming movie The Slammin’ Salmonhere.
The Art Directors Guild announced the nominations for their 2008 awards (which will take place in February) - HIMYM’s production designed Steve Olson was nominated for the episode Miracles. (Olson has won five Guild awards, none of which were for HIMYM, though his work on the show has been nominated every season. He also has three Emmys - one per season - for his work on HIMYM.)
CBS has released two new photos, which were previously available online, but not in HQ.
Also, a note about the last post - it’s been updated to include some clarification of the spoilers. [This isn't Ask Ausiello or anything, where the posted spoilers are all you get - I'm working with limited information, but if you have questions, I have no problem clearing things up where I can.]
Generally I don’t bother spoiler-tagging the network’s description of an episode, but this is one of those episodes where the premise is surprising enough to warrant it. [Think Shelter Island - there was no way to say "Ted and Stella's wedding" without it feeling like a major spoiler.] Anyway: Press release after the jump!
Scheduling: December 1 will be a rerun of The Bracket, and a new episode, The Fight, will air on December 8. [If you don't read big spoilers, the network-issued description of the episode is here.] I would guess that since Benefits is reportedly airing in January, Little Minnesota will be moved ahead of it to air on December 15, but we won’t know for another week or so.
Josh Radnor recently appeared in the November 17 issue of People Magazine:
Video of Josh at Don’t Quit Your Night Job (thanks Ingrid!):
You can read a firsthand account of the event here.
Cobie Smulders will appear on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on November 21 (that’s this Friday night - thanks Shermie!). She’s also up for a Gemini Award for Hottest Canadian Female TV Star. You can vote here. Cobie was also interviewed by Lara Spencer of The Insider:
Neil Patrick Harris is one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Entertainers of the Year. There’s a video interview here, and you can see scans of the article here.
Neil also hosted the Los Angeles Ovation Awards on Monday, and the Artios Awards a week before that.
Those People talk about their experience on the show here, here, and here. They’re talking about filming, so obviously, there are going to be some spoilers for 411.
So we’re clear - these people are all being cast because the episode’s script called for a bunch of reality TV stars/tabloid fixtures. It works within the episode, and it’s minor.
HIMYM is not in danger of being cancelled, and I seriously doubt this is network-mandated. CBS is very satisfied with its Monday comedies (with the possible exception of Worst Week), and HIMYM doesn’t need any help in the ratings department. Viewership has been increasing every week since 4.02 aired, and Not A Father’s Day fell just short of netting the most viewers the show has gotten since Ten Sessions.
Legen- Wait For It is a blog for How I Met Your Mother news - look here for updates about episodes, ratings, cast members, and more. If you have any questions or contributions, send them to dary@legen-waitforit.com.
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