Lost Ratings

Nielsen Ratings are like the Bile in the body of Television.  It’s absolutely disgusting, pretty much poisonous, but for some reason it’s very important.  If you don’t have enough of it you die, and if you have too much… well that’s here that my metaphor really falls apart.  The point is, that Nielsen TV ratings will make or break a show, regardless of how good it is.

Lost ratings have fluctuated over the years.  They have gone up for no reason, and down for no reason.  Currently they are at a relatively comfortable position.  They don’t have huge number but they are very steady and the viewers (I should say we) are the exact demographic that they want to attract.  Ratings on Network TV have fallen very quickly so while it looks like Lost viewers are leaving, it’s relative, because viewers are leaving all the shows.  I should say that you shouldn’t be obsessed with following the ratings or speculating on what they mean but that’s exactly how I am so maybe you should be concerned.

While I disagree completely with the way Nielsen measures viewers, it is very important.  Shows don’t get canceled simply because they suck, they get canceled because no one is watching them.  On the other hand, networks will keep absolute garbage on their networks as long as it draws and audience.  Look at American Idol, it’s still on the air, it gets the best ratings on TV and it serves no purpose whatsoever (if I’ve offended you then good, you shouldn’t be wasting hours every week watching that outrageous show, if your looking for TV shows to waste your time on look here for a list of genuinely good TV shows).  Arrested Development is the perfect example of what happens when a show has bad ratings, it had terrible, terrible ratings, I still don’t know why, but that’s why it was canceled.

What I want to do on this page is to copy out all the ratings from Lost in the past and whenever new episodes come on I will update the page.  I get my numbers from Marc Berman, who has an absolute monopoly on these numbers, he has two sites that have his ratings: TV Tracker & Pi Feed Back.  If anyone can find another source for ratings please tell me (occasionally I look at TV by the Numbers, but they get their numbers from Marc too).

You may notice that in my Revlysis’ I write the ratings there and discuss them a little.

At some point I want to go back and find all the numbers for Live+7 day DVR viewers and also the Ratings/Share.  (Technically what I have below is just the amount of viewers not the actual rating, I just have that because it is the easiest to understand.)

Episode # – original air date – Episode Name – # of viewers in millions

101 – Sept 22 – Pilot (1) – 18.65
102 – Sept 29 – Pilot (2) – 16.33
103 – Oct 6 – Tabula Rasa – 16.56
104 – Oct 13 – Walkabout – 17.55
105 – Oct 20 – White Rabbit – 16.39
106 – Oct 27 – House of the Rising Sun – 16.16
107 – Nov 3 – The Moth – 18.60
108 – Nov 10 – Confidence Man – 18.21
109 – Nov 17 – Solitary – 17.47
110 – Dec 1 – Raised By Another – 17.03
111 – Dec 8 – All the Best Cowboys have Daddy Issues – 18.85
112 – Jan 5 – Whatever the Case May Be – 21.59
113 – Jan 12 – Hearts and Minds – 20.81
114 – Jan 19 – Special – 19.55
115 – Feb 9 – Homecoming – 19.49
116 – Feb 16 – Outlaws – 17.99
117 – Feb 23 – …In Translation – 19.49
118 – Mar 2 – Numbers – 18.83
119 – Mar 30 – Dues Ex Machina – 17.62
120 – Apr 6 – Do No Harm – 16.49
121 – May 4 – The Greater Good – 16.53
122 – May 11 – Born to Run – 16.60
123 – May 18 – Exodus (1) – 18.62
124 – May 25 – Exodus (2) – 20.71

201 – Sept 21 – Man of Science Man of Faith – 23.09
202 – Sept 28 – Adrift – 22.66
203 – Oct 5 – Orientation – 22.04
204 – Oct 12 – Everybody Hates Hugo – 21.66
205 – Oct 19 – …And Found – 20.72
206 – Nov 9 – Abandoned – 20.01
207 – Nov 16 – The Other 48 Days – 21.58
208 – Nov 23 – Collision – 19.14
209 – Nov 30 – What Kate Did – 21.30
210 – Jan 11 – The 23rd Psalm – 20.50
211 – Jan 18 – The Hunting Party – 19.55
212 – Jan 25 – Fire + Water – 19.05
213 – Feb 8 – The Long Con – 18.74
214 – Feb 15 – One of Them – 18.20
215 – Mar 1 – Maternity Leave – 16.43
216 – Mar 22 – The Whole Truth – 15.98
217 – Mar 29 – Lockdown – 16.06
218 – Apr 5 – Dave – 16.83
219 – Apr 12 – S.O.S. – 15.15
220 – May 3 – Two for the Road – 15.03
221 – May 10 – ? – 15.71
222 – May 17 – Three Minutes – 14.67
223 – May 24 – Live Together Die Alone – 17.57

301 – Oct 4 – A Tale of Two Cities – 18.82
302 – Oct 11 – The Glass ballerina – 16.66
303 – Oct 18 – Further Instructions – 16.07
304 – Oct 25 – Every Man For Himself – 16.80
305 – Nov 1 – The Cost of Living  – 16.07
306 – Nov 8 – I Do – 17.15
307 – Feb 7 – Not in Portland – 14.49
308 – Feb 14 – Flashes Before Your Eyes – 12.84
309 – Feb 21 – Stranger in a Strange Land – 12.84
310 – Feb 28 – Tricia Tanaka is Dead – 12.77
311 – Mar 7 – Enter 77 – 12.50
312 – Mar 14 – Par Avion – 12.48
313 – Mar 21 – The Man From Talahasee – 12.22
314 – Mar 28 – Expose – 11.52
315 – Apr 4 – Left Behind – 11.66
316 – Apr 11 – One of Us – 12.09
317 – Apr 18 – Catch 22 – 12.08
318 – Apr 25 – D.O.C. – 11.86
319 – May 2 – The Brig – 12.33
320 – May 9 – The Man Behind the Curtain – 11.89
321 – May 16 – Greatest Hits – 12.09
322 – May 23 – Through the Looking Glass – 13.57

401 – Jan 31 – The Beginning of the End – 16.06
402 – Feb 7 – Confirmed Dead – 15.06
403 – Feb 14 – The Economist – 12.85
404 – Feb 21 – Eggtown – 13.53
405 – Feb 28 – The Constant – 13.62
406 – Mar 6 -The Other Woman – 12.83
407 – Mar 13 – Ji Yeon – 11.87
408 – Mar 20 – Meet Kevin Johnson – 11.28
409 – Apr 24 – The Shape of Things to Come – 12.33
410 – May 1 – Something Nice Back Home – 11.14
411 – May 8 – Cabin Fever – 11.28
412 – May 15 – There’s No Place Like Home (1) – 11.40
413 & 414 – May 29 – There’s No Place Like Home (2) & (3) – 12.32

501 – Jan 21 – Because You Left – 11.66 – 5.2/13
502 – Jan 21 – The Lie – 11.08 – 5.0/12
503 – Jan 28 – Jughead – 11.07 – 4.8/11
504 – Feb 4 – The Little Prince – 10.98 – 4.7/12
505 – Feb 11 – This Place is Death – 9.76 – 4.4/10
506 – Feb 18 – 316 – 11.27 – 5.1/13
507 –  Feb 25 – The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham – 9.82 – 4.4/11
508 – Mar 4 – Lafleur – 10.61 – 4.9/12
509 – Mar 18 – Namaste – 9.08 – 4.2/10
510 – Mar 25 – He’s Our You – 8.82 – 4.0/10
511 – Apr 1 – Whatever Happened, Happened – 9.35 – 4.2/10
512 – Apr 8 – Dead is Dead – 8.29 – 3.7/9
513 – Apr 15 – Some Like it Hoth – 9.01 – 3.9/10
514 – Apr 29 – The Variable – 8.81 – 3.9/10
515 – May 6 – Follow the Leader – 8.70 – 4.0/10
516 – May 13 – The Incident – 9.30 – 4.4/11