Fox (NYSE:NWS-A) continues to dominate their competitors, as in the February sweeps they were so far ahead as to render it a non-race.
While Fox grew by 49 percent over last year, the rest of the networks plunged in viewership, with NBC (NYSE:GE) dropping by 13 percent; ABC (NYSE:DIS) by 21 percent; and CBS (NYSE:CBS-A) by a huge 49 percent.
With two days left in the month, Fox is averaging 17.8 million viewers.
Although down by 21 percent, ABC still managed to hold to second place, averaging 8.4 million viewers. NBC is third with an average o 7.7 million tuning in, while CBS will probably end in the fourth position, right behind NBC, with 8.3 million average viewers.
The poor reality TV show lineup during the strike, as expected, hurt CBS more.
As far as the Fox demolition of their competitors, John Rash, senior vp and director of media negotiations at ad agency Campbell Mithun said, "This is unusual, if not unprecedented, so the numbers have to be viewed accordingly.
"Sweeps are already an audience anachronism, and this February is relatively irrelevant compared to most February sweeps with full scripted competition -- which still shouldn't diminish from the success Fox has had."
I think Mithun is wrong here. It wouldn't have mattered if there was scripted shows or not, Fox would have still destroyed the competition; they've done it the last few years, with or without scripted fare.
Fox would still have their numbers regardless of scripted shows, and even if the other networks would have improved some, they wouldn't have been anywhere near Fox in their results.
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