The Office Nielsen ratings, Season 9

56 comments

1. The numbers make me sad. I am really hoping lots of the old fans come back. After last night I have no doubt Greg will take this out on top.

2. Wow. Looks like half of The Office viewers have checked out.

3. The Office and Parks and Rec ratings made me sad!! Overall, NBC night was weak… such a shame, considering we got 2 awesome episodes last night…

4. One last question, will Gabe be back this season as a regular??? Last night he didn’t show up (I guess he was in Florida), but I really hope we’ll get to see him in the background once a week :P…

5. @creedfan, I wondered where Gabe was too, but remember the company isn’t run by Sabre any more. It might be because Sabre is no more. Or maybe he works with David Wallace at the head office.

6. Could it been the lack of advertisements, maybe? A few days ago I happened to watch NBC over a period of a couple hours and there wasn’t a single Office promo. I only saw the first one on about Tuesday. That may have been just me, though…

7. Wow, this makes me incredibly sad. I’m quite disappointed with TV viewers these days. I guess it was a good call to end the Office now.

8. All of NBC’s ratings are poor. The ratings for The Office probably won’t go up until the very end or unless Carell comes back.

9. I really think they are gearing up to take this series out with the big bang that they need after seeing Roy’s Wedding. I hope old fans will come back for this last journey.

10. I’m honestly not surprised. Season 8 was pretty awful and drove a lot of the fans away. I’m only still around because of Jim and Pam.

11. You might want to check again, Tanster. Final numbers were much worse.

    [ from tanster: thanks! now revised. ]

12. I’m with you #10, I had one foot out the door untill I heard Greg was back in charge. I’m here to see how Jim and Pam play out. They are what hooked me in and the absolute only reason I stayed with the show.

13. I think Season 8 was very good. This episode was much better than the previous one. I have high hopes for Season 9.

    I watch the show for Erin and want to know if she finds what she is looking for.

14. At this rate, there will probably be about 30 people watching by the time the series finale is aired in May.

15. pete (13) I agree, season 8 was good, and I watch the show now for Erin. But I hate what has happened with Andy this season – whose idea was that?!? And there are so few laughs now.

16. Too many fans have left over the past 2 years. While some of you are watching for Erin and Andy. I pretty much quit watching because of the focus on them. I’m just thrilled Jim and Pam have a story. Something that was lacking for way too long. The numbers don’t lie, people did not connect with the Erin/Andy romance.

17. Check again Tanster. The final ratings were up a bit.

    NBC The Office 2.2/6 4.14

18. Karen, people quit because of many reasons. After 8 years, it is not unreasonable that viewers start to lose interest. Others might have left because Steve is no longer in the show.

    I like Erin much more than Andy/Erin. In fact I now cheer for Pete.

19. I think the Office isn’t in for the ratings anymore. This season is all about finishing one of the greatest shows ever on their own terms.

    Who cares about the ratings anymore? Those that have stayed on Tally and have kept on watching every Thursday are the real dedicated fans in my honest opinion. I’ve only been on this site for only a year and it stinks to hear people say that “we have lost viewers the past few years.”

    Let’s all forget and ignore the numbers!

20. Trent, I agree we shouldn’t worry about the numbers. It is all about finishing the show with a great year.
    Pete, I know people have left for many reasons. I also know many people that did watch couldn’t take the whole Erin/Andy will they won’t they story that went on for 3 years. I will defend JAM and the lack of stories they had were a big mistake for this show.

21. Trent, I wouldn’t say NBC and the creators of the Office don’t care about the ratings any more. This is a business after all. But, as fans you are right it shouldn’t matter. There are a set number of episodes remaining and if you aren’t watching the show yet you probably never will. We dont need to worry about ratings because there is no threat of cancellation – we know the show is going to wrap up anyways.

22. I’m guessing Glee is cutting into The Office’s viewership a little bit. It had never been on Thursdays till this fall. Still disappointing ratings :/

23. The ratings were actually up from last week.

24. It’s true, The Office’s dwindling ratings shouldn’t affect the fans or the show in any way. Of course, if you’re NBC, it’s costing you advertising dollars. As far as why the numbers have fallen off, people can blame Andy/Erin or Paul Liberstein all they want. But it was the loss of Steve Carell that proved to be insurmountable. To most viewers, he was The Office.

25. It’s nice to see the number increases each week even if it’s such a small amount.

26. It is great, and I’m expecting that the “Colbert Bump” might help a bit in next week’s episode.

27. Tanster the final ratings were adjusted up:

    NBC The Office (9-9:31PM) 2.1/6 4.28

28. The only way the low Season 9 ratings will impact the show would be a stunning turnaround for all other NBC comedies that would lead to the show being put on hiatus until later in the 2012-13 season (very unlikely) or having the last set of episodes held over for airing during the summer (extremely extremely unlikely). People are missing out on this very good-so far final season, but that’s not unheard of late in series’ runs, and I expect we’ll get the full slate of episodes here to send our favorite characters out on a high note.

29. After 8 seasons it is not unreasonable that people would start to lose interest.

    I would not put the blame on Andy/Erin. Many of my friends used to watch the show but they no longer do so. NONE of them even heard of Erin.

    I am very hopeful that the show will end on a high note. The last 3 episodes have been outstanding.

30. Ratings keep going up! Nice!

31. @#30 The final numbers were actually down to a 1.9

32. …Well, spoke to soon. The final numbers are really bad :(

33. As an Office fan since the very first airing, I have to say, there has been SO much potential, and there’s much that could have been capitalized on, but it’s not being done. As a fan, as someone who KNOWS what they want to see, I absolutely could have done without the here comes treble parts, completely. The Jim and Pam story is looking really awesome, I know you’re supposed to slowly tease it, but that can’t be the ONLY story going on here, tease other stories as well, not just dumb stuff you THINK is going to be funny.

34. Aww, it went down? Last night’s episode was fantastic!

35. Who cares about numbers at this point, Seeing Jan again was just a reminder that she was in the pilot and still true to form. Last night was better than last week, which was better than the week before etc: All this fantastic writing is leading to fantastic shows. I’ll be buying this DVD as well when the season is over.

36. This is depressing. Glee getting more viewers than The Office is an embarrassment. We have the series low on one of the best episodes of recent times.

37. At least this season seems to be critically liked. It doesn’t really matter all that much people will get around to seeing the episodes.

38. So, The Boat has the best rating.

    Perhaps viewers really do like Andy/Erin better.

39. Pete, I think that was the week TO was followed by The Voice instead up All Up Night. Makes a big difference.

40. @Karen, come on, can’t you just let me be delusional? ;-)

41. Yes I can, sorry about that!:)

42. Once lost an audience rarely returns. I know people who like me were viewers from the beginning, and people who only got into the show around season 5 or 6. Almost all stopped watching during season 8. I’ve tried to get friends back into it, but it doesn’t last. They say the feel of the show changed too much, the characters became too cartoony, it’s too sitcommy, too repetitive, not funny enough. And Nellie! But it’s almost inevitable that a show feels tired after this long.

    But I think one reason why “The Target” and episodes like the Dwightbaby birth seem to attract less viewers is that this arc is interminable. Since S3 it has dragged on, piling on affairs, duels, sex contracts, gay senators, giant Dwightbaby, gay affairs, car chases, hitmen etc. Some fans loathe what this plot turned into and I honestly think the wackiness of it all contributed somewhat to the derailing of the show. Most fans I know just wanted to see more plausible, grounded stories. Don’t mean to sound too harsh but it shouldn’t be that difficult.

43. I’m really surprised the show has stabilized around 4 million viewers pretty consistently this season. Last season was just a downward spiral. I assume it will only increase in the last stretch of the show.

    Sad to see it go. I bet the series finale will draw 6 million. Maybe 7 if we’re lucky. But I’ll bet 6.

44. Even with all the talk this last week, the numbers stayed the same. Makes me sad, because I believe this season is one of the best.

45. I don’t know if I would call this season one of the best. I’ll put it in the top 7, though.

46. Seems like the ratings go up down up down.

47. I have to imagine that Valentine’s is a rough night for television anyway.

48. @ #47: Valentine’s Day resulted in a 6% drop in overall views this year, which accounts for the 0.1 drop in the ratings.

49. This is still a very solid show even in its ninth season. Best writers since Cheers.

50. 2nd place only because Grey’s Anatomy and Person of Interest were reruns.

51. Man, we’re really hitting low on these ratings here.

52. The thing is, even with such low ratings (only partially excused by NFL draft or whatever it was), NBC doesn’t really have anything with higher ratings. It has no excuse to not give us extra time for the finale.

    [from tanster: exactly!]

53. Weird to see “The Office” and “Two and Half Men” as timeslot competitors last week. Is that the first time they’ve aired at the same time?

54. I’m wondering what the finale will get, ratings-wise. I’m assuming that it can at least hit 6 million viewers. I’m kind of hoping for 7-8, though, even though I know that’s unrealistic.

55. I just wanted to comment on next weeks episode. I hope when the opening credits begin, that they acknowledge the entire cast as they did I believe in the Superbowl episode. I think it will be a nice tribute to the cast.

56. NBC The Office – Series Finale (9-10:15) 3.0 5.70

    It was updated Tanster. I was kinda hoping for better ratings but a 16 month high is better than nothing!