For the week of January 12-18, Fox’s American Idol returned to unsurprisingly lead our list of most DVR viewers. Idol had the two largest audiences via DVR viewing with 4.873 million viewers via DVRs on Tuesday and 4.603 million on Wednesday.

ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy was third with a DVR viewing audience of 4.218 million. Rounding out the top ten for the largest DVR audiences were Desperate Housewives, CSI, Office, 24, Two and A Half Men, NCIS and Criminal Minds.

With most networks airing new episodes high levels of DVR viewing were back, as Privileged had the highest share of it’s overall viewing by DVR with 33.9% of all viewing by DVR. CW shows were prominent, with 5 in the top 10 and 7 in the top 20 including a regularly scheduled same week rerun of 90210. In my memory that’s the first time a same week rerun placed in the top 20 for % of DVR viewing.

Rounding out the top 10 for highest share of total audience viewing via DVR viewing were 90210, Office, Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, 30 Rock, Smallville, Supernatural, 24 and Desperate Housewives.

Those of you interested in DVR viewing numbers might enjoy Doing My Part To Combat DVR Misinformation.

Largest DVR Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows, January 12-18, 2009:

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For the week of January 5-11, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy had the largest audience via DVR viewing with 4.600 million viewers via DVRs. Most shows were back with new episodes, and a more typical pattern of DVR viewing returned to broadcast television.

ABC’s Desperate Housewives was second with a DVR viewing audience of 3.107 million. Rounding out the top ten for the largest DVR audiences were 24, NCIS, The Mentalist, Private Practice, Law and Order:SVU, E.R. Numb3rs, and Brothers & Sisters.

With new episodes returning, so did high levels of DVR viewing, as 90210 had the highest share of it’s overall viewing by DVR with 35% of all viewing by DVR. Rounding out the top 10 for highest share of total audience viewing via DVR viewing were Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, 30 Rock, Privileged, Lipstick Jungle, One Tree Hill, 24, My Name is Earl and E.R.

Those of you interested in DVR viewing numbers might enjoy Doing My Part To Combat DVR Misinformation.

Largest DVR Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows, January 5-11, 2009:

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For the week of December 29 - January 4, ABC’s Desperate Housewives had the largest audience via DVR viewing with 3.170 million viewers via DVRs.

CBS’s The Unit was second with a DVR viewing audience of 1.566 million. Rounding out the top ten for the largest DVR audiences were Brothers & Sisters, Lipstick Jungle, Eli Stone, Cold Case, NCIS, Knight Rider, Two and A Half Men, and an NBC NFL Playoff Game.

ABC’s now cancelled Eli Stone had the highest share of it’s overall viewing by DVR with 25.6% of all viewing by DVR. Rounding out the top 10 for highest share of total audience viewing via DVR viewing were Lipstick Jungle, Desperate Housewives, Knight Rider, Brothers & Sisters, The Unit, Momma’s Boys, House, Office and Criminal Minds.

Note: This was another week filled with specials and reruns, it had an atypical pattern of DVR viewing. The data for the next week should have a much more “normal” pattern.

Those of you interested in DVR viewing numbers might enjoy Doing My Part To Combat DVR Misinformation.

Largest DVR Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows, December 29, 2008-January 2, 2009:

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As the old saying goes “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”. With almost all regular shows in repeats for the week of December 22-28, a new episode of Fox’s Prison Break had both the largest audience via DVR viewing with 1.11 million viewers via DVRs and the highest share of it’s overall viewing by DVR with 19.5% of all viewing by DVR. Overall, the level of DVR viewing for the week’s shows was, as expected, substantially lower than normal.

CBS’s Two and A Half Men was second with a DVR viewing audience of 756,000. Rounding out the top ten for the largest DVR audiences were Criminal Minds, NCIS, 60 Minutes, The Mentalist, two episodes of House, Shrek the Halls, and Big Bang Theory.

Rounding out the top 10 for highest share of total audience viewing via DVR viewing were two episodes of The Office, Criminal Minds, Supernatural, Fringe, Momma’s Boys, two episodes of Bones and House.

For reasons I won’t bore you with, I had problems matching up the Live+SD numbers with the Live and Live+7 numbers, so no comparisons with Live+SD this week.

Those of you interested in DVR viewing numbers might enjoy Doing My Part To Combat DVR Misinformation.

Largest DVR Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows, December 22-28, 2008:

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Our regular weekly DVR viewing feature that was on hiatus for lack of data is back! For the week of December 15-21, NBC’s Heroes had both the largest audience via DVR viewing with 4.239 million viewers via DVRs and the highest share of it’s overall viewing by DVR with 31.6% of all viewing by DVR.

CBS’s The Mentalist was second with a DVR viewing audience of 2.707 million. Rounding out the top ten for the largest DVR audiences were NCIS, Criminal Minds, Two and A Half Men, CSI: Miami, How I Met Your Mother, Private Practice, CSI:NY and Chuck.

Rounding out the top 10 for highest share of total audience viewing via DVR viewing were Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break, Private Practice, Life, Chuck, My Own Worst Enemy, Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone.

Those of you interested in DVR viewing numbers might enjoy Doing My Part To Combat DVR Misinformation.

Largest DVR Audiences for Broadcast TV Shows, December 15-21, 2008:

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We think we may have a new complete source for DVR numbers, but we don’t have them yet, so to tide you over here is a graphic of the top 10 most viewed shows in DVR playback among 18-49 year olds for the week of 12/8-14 via a Fox press release. Please keep in mind that typically we measured the entire DVR viewing audience of people aged two and above, and these numbers are only for 18-49 year olds:

For reference, here are the top 20 shows for adults 18-49 in the same week for Live+SD viewing.

Definitions:

Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day(Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.

While we figure out what to do about posting live plus seven day DVR viewing on a regular basis in the spirit of both “better late than never” and “it’s better than nothing” here is a graphic of the top 10 most viewed shows on a live plus seven basis among 18-49 year olds for the week of 11/24-11/30 via a Fox press release. Please keep in mind that typically we measured the entire DVR viewing audience of people aged two and above, and these numbers are only for 18-49 year olds:

Also note that was Thanksgiving week, which explains the absence of Grey’s Anatomy and CSI (they were reruns that week). House got nearly a two point 18-49 ratings increase as a result of DVR viewing, but it should also be noted that around half of that DVR viewing likely occurred the same night the shows actually aired and is included in the typical “live plus same day” results we report.

We have no ETA on when we will (or if we will) see the required Live and Live+7 data to be able to calculate the numbers for our regular DVR viewing posts.

You can see past week’s DVR viewing data here.