The Office Nielsen Ratings, Seasons 1-4

131 comments

1. I have one of those Neilson boxes at my house i represent many of those viewers and of course i watch the office every thursday!!!yay!

2. Yay, Claudia! I was wondering where all of you Neilson people were.

3. I thought Neilson people had to keep quiet about having a box, oh no! We might lose a viewer! Don’t tell them where you live!!

4. Why is Nielsen just now including on-campus college students? Silly Nielsen. What else is there to do in college?

5. “The Office” won this highly competitive time period among adults and men 18-34.”
   Does this mean that men between 18-34 aren’t considered adults?

6. Great to see the show doing so well.

   But they really need to come up with a new system.

   This system is outdated.

7. I’m really happy that the show is doing so well. :)

   I’m looking forward to many seasons to come! *fingers crossed*

8. As a young, 21, college viewer, I can say, there are quite of few of us at my school who are flat out obsessed with The Office, so rock on to that.

9. Yes, Angelica, I think it means that “men 18 – 34” are not adults. Grammatically at least. If I were a man I might be insulted.

10. Ditto hear. Tons at my college watch “The Office” every week.

11. Should be interesting to see if viewership goes down this week, what with American Idol airing their hour-long results show at 8/7c.

12. Claudia, we’re a Nielson family as well. I like to think that I had something to do with the increases.

13. I love all you Nielsen box people who boost their ratings!!! Yayyyyy.

14. Angelica, that line means that the office won the 18-34 adults group (which is all viewers overall), and the 18-34 men subgroup, but not the 18-34 women subgroup.

15. what i’d REALLY be interested to know is the Nielson Ratings for the Office compared to that of My Name Is Earl.. because umm… EVERYONE that i know who watches the office? hates my name is earl.
    i hope its outrating Earl. i’d love it.

16. Jay C, “My Name Is Ernie” (see Paul/Toby’s myspace page) almost always gets more overall viewers, but with maybe one or two exceptions, since the two shows have been paired up, The Office has always outperformed Ernie in the coveted 18-49 demo. And there was much rejoicing! (I don’t like Earl either. It only made me laugh twice)

17. Weak Arms wrote:

    Should be interesting to see if viewership goes down this week, what with American Idol airing their hour-long results show at 8/7c.

    My guess is that the other 8/7c network shows (i.e. Ugly Betty & Survivor) share a lot more viewers with American Idol than The Office, so with Thursday Idol those shows’ ratings will go down a bunch, while The Office’s ratings won’t be affected as much. I just checked the listings for tonight and ABC pulled Ugly Betty and is instead airing a repeat of last week’s Grey’s Anatomy, presumably to avoid the Idol crush.

18. What’s really scary is that since I turn 34 this year, I only have a short amount of time until my opinion no longer matters.

    *sigh*

19. “EVERYONE that i know who watches the office? hates my name is earl.”

    hey now — I like Earl. It does make me laugh . . . but I have to admit that sitting through it while waiting for The Office to come on is torture sometimes. LOL.

20. I’m one of the biggest Office fans you’ll find, and I don’t hate My Name is Earl, in fact I really like it. And I have a lot of friends who it as well… along with my family.

21. Silly Nielsen indeed.

22. I think The Office could and should do better.

    Too many people just seemed to be too infatuated with “BUGLY”.

23. I think the fact that the total viewership of “The Office” went down over the past two months was more due to the fact that “Survivor” premiered rather than any perceivable drop in quality of the show (I for one think that this season of “The Office” continues to be consistently terrific). I believe viewership numbers as they stand are typical of “The Office” against a concurrent running of a new episode of “Survivor”.

    With regards to the latest numbers, the episodes were reruns, and so would naturally yield lower viewership figures. The most telling, however, was that last week’s Newpeat actually scored higher ratings than a new episode of “Scrubs” that followed it, which is encouraging for our show (though I do like “Scrubs”)

24. Ditto to Bales.

    I’d like to think the drop in viewers was related to P.W. being not so good and the unnecessarily depressing sweeps arc in general which really brought me as close as I have to just giving up on this show personally, but I’m positive that the only real problem for the ratings is Survivor. During the period when there was no Survivor this winter, the Office’s ratings spike up noticeably.

25. Mose, I turn 34 in a couple of months myself. I guess it’s time to start looking at shawls and canes.

26. Earl is great. I’m one of those people who turns in every week for The Office but will likely end up watching the entire comedy block.

27. As long as they keep The office on the air, I’ll be happy. The ratings need to pick up though. :-(

28. From CNN.com – a story about why TV ratings are down.
    GOOD NEWS – Office ratings are UP if you include iTunes, DVR, etc.!!!

    “People are not consuming less television, they’re watching it in different ways, and the measurements haven’t caught up,” said Alan Wurtzel, chief research executive at NBC (owned by General Electric Co.).

    The numbers can be significant. When “The Office” aired on NBC on April 5, Nielsen said there were 5.8 million people watching. Add in the people who recorded the episode and watched it within the next week, and viewership swelled to 7.6 million, a 32 percent increase, Nielsen said.

29. Thanks for posting the information, tanster! Wow…looking at the numbers for “Product Recall”, which I think is more representative since “The Office” was in its usual timeslot, those are very impressive numbers, especially in the males 18-34 demo. That’s a huge lead over the second placed “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader”. And of course, as mentioned in the article, “The Office” also managed to build significantly in the 18-49 demo from lead-in “Earl”. It’s amazing how well our little show performs in the key demographics, when the overall viewership is less than 10 million.

30. my opinion is the reason the ratings dropped was because of that 6 week hiatus. Actually when Lost went on a break, there viewership dropped something like 14%. Anyway, The Office is huge when it comes to Tivo and stuff. So I don’t worry much about ratings.(besides Nielsen has only just recently started counting college students. and i know it is big among college students)

31. I agree that it’s really interesting that The Office does well in the key demo of 18-34/18-49 year olds but it total viewers it’s not in the top 20. Maybe a lot of people in that age group don’t watch TV live anymore due to DVRs/TiVo, while older and teen viewers tend to watch live TV more thus reflecting what’s in the top 20?

32. There is so many things wrong with the Nielsen Ratings, I’m still in shock people actually use them.

33. We start filling out a Nielsen diary for the first time starting tomorrow morning.

34. Magna: Upscale Viewers Prefer ABC, NBC Shows

    In a recent study conducted by Magna Global USA, ABC posted nine of the top 22 shows, with the highest upscale index among viewers ages 25-54–a score of 117–during the fourth and first quarters. NBC was next at seven shows. CBS had five and Fox one.

    Some of those top shows include: NBC’s “The Office” and “Friday Night Lights,” ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and “What About Brian,” CBS’ “Rules of Engagement” and “Amazing Race” and Fox’s “24.” These hit shows drew 25-54 viewers who averaged $68,000 in annual income.

35. Ratings only matter to the suits at NBC, and the suits at NBC are excited with the Office’s ratings. It may not bring in a wide audience, but it brings in the people that advertisers want to reach.

    What good is a tv show to an advertiser if the only people watching don’t have the disposable income to buy your product.

    The Office is one of, if not the main, asset currently owned by NBC. It does well on iTunes, on DVD sales, and in general ratings.

36. I love Earl! and the Office!

    I basically love Earl because it reminds me of my childhood.

    And as a college student, I would like to brag about bringing at least 5 people to the office who are now die-hard fans. Even some international students, so it is going to be watched in Japan too!

37. the office >>>>>>> ugly betty

38. Just have to give some props to Earl, here. While I find The Office to be a much better show, and much more intelligent, I do get some laughs from Earl (I think Darnell is the funniest), and as a matter of fact, I used to watch Earl and then turn off the tv! (I know, I know, what was I THINKING? It wasn’t until the 2nd season that I discovered The Office, thanks to my brother).

    Yay Office, for the great ratings. I know that the folks at NBC know that the Neilsens, though, aren’t the only indication of a show’s popularity. As a matter of fact, wasn’t there an article about how The Office was saved from being cancelled after NBC realized how popular it was on iTunes? Thank goodness for iPods!

39. Megan, I am with you there. In my grad program, there is maybe one person who doesn’t watch The Office. I try my best to make as many Office addicts as possible. Currently all my DVDs are on loan so I can inculcate new fans!

40. 35 | mg714:

    I’m guessing that’s exactly the case. I’m 28, and I watch both the version I’ve taped (too broke for tivo) and download the episodes on iTunes because I often either work late at my 9-to-5 or have class at night.

    Same with all the friends I’ve converted and with my slightly younger sister. Guess it appeals to us office-slaves.

41. Well, I know that there were 12 people at my house all watching the season finale on one tv, so you can probably add a few more to that number. :D

42. I’m a 33-year-old, minivan-driving, work-at-home, which means I-never-leave-home, mom to a very high maintenance 20-month-old crazy cuckoo little boy. It’s truly the only show I look forward to each week. Seriously, it’s my escape. I love it more than I can put words to. When there’s something new on the top of Officetally, I’m giddy with delight. I have no idea what I’ll do this summer…it’s my life and I’m okay with that. I used to work in an office, doing the exact same crap, so even though I’m now boring, I still get it. And yes, sometimes I have FNB moments and I totally relate to Pammy. And I do wish she was my BFF.

43. there is nothing more satisfying than converting your friends. when the season 2 dvd came out, i had a big season 1 and 2 viewing party with non-fans, and it was so gratifying to watch them go from skepticism to confusion to uncontrollable laughter.
    go convert a friend today!

44. my girlfriend never understood why i would watch “such a stupid show” until one night i made her sit down and watch The Injury from my dvd’s. i was thrilled that afterwards she said “lets watch another one.” shes been hooked to the show ever since. we watch a few every night because she can’t get enough.

45. To #46 (Pam’sBFF): I totally and completely want to be Pam’s BFF as well. What a fun time we would have!

46. Yes! The Office kicks Ugly Betty’s butt! Victory! Great report from CNN. Not only do people watch The Office on television, but it’s the most downloaded show on iTunes. As of this writing, The Job is #1, Beach Day is #6 and Woman’s Appreciation just fell off the the top 10 charts last night. The Office is like the Beatles of the 10 Ten Hit Charts. Nice.

47. NIELSEN??? I watch “My name is Earl” and “The Office” every week because I LOVE both of them. I am 56 and 3/4 years old and I am sure that alot of older people, like myself watch these shows every week. Is the NIELSEN only for younger viewers??? That doesn’t seem fair.
    I was happy to watch the reruns last night, made my day!!

48. Hi guys, thought you might like to know that for the 2006-2007 TV season, “The Office” finished 68th out of the listed 142 primetime network programs in terms of total viewership, with an average of 8.3 million viewers. For the all-critical adults 18-49 demo, there is better news: our little show finished 28th with a 4.1 ratings. Hope I didn’t get the numbers wrong, but this makes “The Office” the 4th highest ranked NBC scripted show in the demo, behind “Heroes”, “ER” and “Law and Order: SVU”. Full table is given in this URL

    On a personal note, I thought the six-week hiatus post “Cocktails” really affected the ratings of “The Office” this season, something which hopefully the additional episode order will ameliorate for the upcoming season. I sincerely hope the move to Thursdays 9pm would work out, and there’s reasons to be cautiously optimistic. We avoid going against “Survivor”, which ratings results for the past two seasons suggest is the main competition to “The Office” in terms of key male adult demos. “The Office” also provides an alternative to the drama of “Grey’s” and the procedural of “CSI” in the 9pm hour.

49. Niiiiicccceeee [/Kevin].

    Whooot whoot! This news makes my “Office” heart quiver with joy.

    Thank you _bales! Thank you Tanster for posting this!

    :)

50. That is awesome news Bales. Thanks for sharing. I’m so happy to finally see ratings like this for the show. Two hours into the new season and I’m loving every single second of it.

51. This is great news for the show, I suppose.

    However, The Office has peaked in terms of quality. That’s a bummer. It’s still my favorite show, but let’s face facts: Season 2 was the peak. Season 3 + Season 4.1 and .2 + increasingly higher ratings = a show that has been declining in quality and likely will continue to do so.

    And I’ll continue watching, I’m sure.

52. thanks a lot jennie for posting this. i am always curious to see the ratings for all the shows. and thanks bales for the year recap!

53. I think that The Office is doing pretty well, especially for its time slot against Grey’s Anatomy and CSI. The Office will always be my first choice!

54. One of the reasons I love bales. He is always on top of this sort of thing. Thank you, bales, for the info. Thank you, tanster, for posting. :)

55. sadly, the Office is still placing behind CSI and Greys..

56. hi MFA, no one (including NBC) expects “The Office” to beat “Grey’s” or “CSI” in the timeslot. “The Office” isn’t the mass appeal-type show that either “Grey’s” or “CSI” is to have those monster-type numbers. What it is, however, is a consistent demo performer.

    Comparing year-to-year (against October 5, 2006), “The Office” had a 4.1 in adults 18-49 (and that’s in the 8.30 pm timeslot). Year ago Thursday 9pm timeslot occupant “Deal or No Deal” had a 3.2 in the demo. That’s growth for “The Office” of 10% against its year ago performance, and a very impressive 40% (!) against what NBC had at this timeslot last year. This is all extremely positive news for our little show.

    Lest we take ratings increase for granted, “Earl” had a 4.0 in the demo this time last year; it’s now at 3.4. “Ugly Betty” had a 4.5 in 2006; that stands at 3.4 now. I’m not trying to knock down any of those shows, but it’s just an example of how, while other scripted Thursday comedies seem to be showing signs of ratings decline, “The Office” is still going strong, at least for now.

57. hi everyone, just to close out the ratings performance for “The Office” last week, “Dunder Mifflin Infinity” had an estimated total viewing audience 8.566 million viewers, and a 4.6/11 in adults 18-49, according to final ratings figures (data courtesy of TravisYanan at The Programming Insider). For the week of Oct 1-7, this puts “The Office” at #8 in adults 18-49 among all broadcast network programming (courtesy of USAToday), making it the second consecutive week that the show has made it to the top ten in the demo (“The Office” was #10 last week). Congrats to the show for its fine start to its ratings performance this season :)

58. hi everyone! Sorry for the multiple posts, but just thought you guys might like to know that Tivo just released their premiere week rating figures (Week of September 24), and “The Office” was among the top 5 time-shifted program among Tivo viewers that week. The total Tivo rating for “The Office” was 14.231%, with 10.183% watching it time-shifted, i.e. over 70% (!) of Tivo viewers who watched “The Office”, watched it time-shifted. Full data for other programs at this URL

59. According to final nationals, Thursday’s wonderful episode “Launch Party” had a total viewership of 8.872 million viewers and a 4.7/11 in the key adults 18-49 demo (data courtesy of TravisYanan from The Programming Insider). This makes “The Office” the highest rated NBC show on the night in the demo (yay!). Our little show built by an impressive 57% from lead-in “30 Rock” (3.0/8), while scoring 34% higher than lead-out “ER” (3.5/10).

    Week 3 of “The Office” was at comparable levels with “Dunder Mifflin Infinity” (8.566 million viewers, 4.6/11 adults 18-49). Still early in the season, but it’s encouraging that the strong ratings performance seems to remain steady in the tough timeslot.

    Comparing year-to-year, “The Office” grew by 15% in the demo (“The Coup” at 4.1/11 according to fast nationals on October 12, 2006), and scored a remarkable 52% higher than previous timeslot occupant “Deal or No Deal” (3.1/7).

    For the week starting October 8, the 4.7 rating puts “The Office” at #8 among all broadcast network programming thus far (with Sunday’s results pending). All in all, this has been an extremely solid, consistent ratings performance for “The Office” so far this season. Someone sound a bear-horn to celebrate!

60. Where can I find a list of Nielsen ratings for past Office episodes? How many viewers did “The Injury” have? Did more people watch “Traveling Salesmen” or “The Return”? Is “Hot Girl” still the lowest-rated Office episode ever?

61. Thanks for putting the ratings comments for all episodes in one post. That’s going to be very helpful when one if feeling nerdy and wants to track trends. Thanks!

62. Hooray! It is great that a ton of people watched the best episode of the season. Hopefully this will convince the average (not rabid like us) fans to keep watching. It would be great for The Office to continue for a fifth or sixth season!

63. Nice! I knew this would be posted. :) Thank you, bales and tanster.

64. Hi Luke, totally with you in hoping that more casual viewers will tune in. As the ratings stand, I imagine that NBC is more than pleased at moving “The Office” to the top of the 9pm hour.

    However, I’m concerned about the impact that the return of “Scrubs” in two weeks will have on the ratings of “The Office”. No offense to “Scrubs” (I like the show too!), but it’s not a demo ratings powerhouse. Would the casual viewer be as inclined to tune into our little show at the top of the hour if “Scrubs” isn’t a program that they would want to continue watching at the bottom of the hour? In addition, I understand that Nielsens are collected in half-hour intervals; the hourlong episodes have the advantage that if the audience grows during the hour, this increases the overall rating. Obviously, the return of “Scrubs” robs “The Office” of this edge.

    Hopefully NBC’s strategy of “locking” down the tough timeslot by starting the season with four hourlongs would have worked to a certain extent. I fear the worst in that I think the ratings for “The Office” will dip when “Scrubs” returns. What do fellow posters think?

65. YaY! This is great news! For a show that’s not as mainstream as CSI or Grey’s, it is holding its own extremely well! I’d rather watch The Office over anything else any day of week :)

66. Thanks for posting ratings information. I love keeping track of how our little show does week to week. It’s so encouraging to see such a strong showing in a difficult time slot. Hopefully, this trend will continue throughout the season.

67. I’m pretty sure that The Office has a solid fan base and even with the return of Scrubs will only see a slim if not non-existent loss in ratings. Keep in mind, Scrubs is in it’s final season so I think the ratings will be a bit higher for that show as well.

68. This ratings data is incorrect by a decent margin. The Office, actually, rated much higher on Live + Same Day ratings. The Office went 5.2/8, 30 Rock went 4.2/7, and ER was 5.8/10. ER’s reported 3.5/10 was the red flag for me to double check the data. ER, surprisingly, is still a decent show for NBC and for the last two seasons of The Office has regularly been 5.5 to 6.5 and always garners a 10+ share.

69. hi Mike G, the data that was included was for adults 18-49. The numbers you’re quoting is for total households. Hope this clears up any confusion :)

70. The data above is for the 18-49 demo.

71. One interesting thing I’ve notice about the office moreso than other show is that a lot of the people I know who watch it religiously don’t watch it when first aired, they either tivo it download it and watch it later. Personally during a season, tops I might watch half of the eps on first airing.

72. I am 57 years old, and I gave up watching “Grey’s” because I can’t miss “The Office” and I quit watching the CSI’s a long time ago. I think that there is probably a lot of older viewers too. {even older then me!!} I don’t know how I came across The Office in the first season but I am sure glad I did!! I live in PA but I am not going to the convention, so EVERYONE who is going, have a great time and I’ll read about the adventures here!!!

73. Hi everyone, Nielsens has released ratings for premiere week (Week of September 24) that includes DVR viewings up to an interval of 7 days after broadcast. “The Office” had the highest percentage of viewership increase when DVR viewings are taken into account (10.9%), bringing its total viewership figures for “Fun Run” to 10.84 million viewers.

    The link to the full article

74. Just wanted to add: the corresponding ratings bump for “Fun Run” in adults 18-49 after DVR viewings within 7 days of broadcast are taken into account is 0.8, which I believe puts it at a very impressive 5.9.

    Link

75. hi everyone. I just realized that “The Office” premiered one week earlier last year (September 21, 2006), so the numbers below quoted for the October 12, 2006 episode should be for “Grief Counseling”, not “The Coup”. So sorry about the error.

76. Variety has an article up on the super-sizing of shows, including “The Office”. While the move seems to have paid off ratings-wise for our little show, sadly, it appears to have exacted a toll on the cast and crew. While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the hourlong episodes, perhaps the half-hour format is the best for the show, so the writers and cast don’t burn themselves out. I’ve quoted the section of the article pertaining to the ratings below. Full article here

    Viewers have rewarded NBC for the “Office” supersizing. Skein’s ratings are up 17%, even opposite brutal Thursday competition, and it has improved the time period for the net vs. last year (“Scrubs” and “30 Rock”) by about 50%.

    Thanks to everyone involved with the show for all the hard work and long hours put into filming the hourlongs. The ratings bump is fully deserved :) Can’t wait for the episode next week!

77. Hi everyone, just wanted to share some idle number crunching on this week’s ratings already kindly provided by OT: Week 4 of “The Office” built by 69% in the adults 18-49 demo from its lead-in “30 Rock” at 2.6/7 (which itself has done a very commendable job this season of holding the demo audience from lead-in “Earl”, which is at 2.7/8 this week). The 4.4 demo rating for this week’s emotionally magnificent episode was the highest for all NBC shows on Thursday, with lead-out “ER” at a very noteworthy 4.0/11. Our little show was up 10% in the demo from its year-ago performance (“Initiation” on 10/19/06 at 4.0/10 according to fast nationals), and also scored a hefty 47% higher than previous timeslot-occupant “Deal or No Deal” (3.0/7).

    Courtesy of USAToday, last week’s “Launch Party” tied for ninth in adults 18-49 rating among all broadcast network programming, making it three weeks in a row that “The Office” has made the top ten. According to fast nationals for the week starting October 15 (courtesy of Berman from Mediaweek), the 4.4 demo rating for “The Office” puts it 10th among all network shows, with Sunday’s results still pending.

78. Hi everyone! Fast affiliate ratings for last night’s delightful (with a capital “Oh D”) episode of “The Office”, courtesy of Berman from Mediaweek: “Local Ad” scored 8.98 million viewers with a 4.7/7 in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demo. Our little show built by 52% in the demo from lead-in “30 Rock” (3.1/5), and is 24% higher than the season premiere of lead-out “Scrubs” (3.8/6). “The Office” was the highest-rated NBC show for the night in the demo, and also built by a significant 34% over year-ago timeslot occupant “Deal or No Deal” (3.5/9 on 10/26/06). I think this is a very impressive performance by our little show, considering that baseball was also in the mix last night.

    The 4.7 ratings points places “The Office” tied sixth among all broadcast network programming in adults 18-49 for the week starting October 22, with Thursday’s final nationals and results for this weekend’s shows pending. Depending on what the final nationals are, “The Office” is just 0.2 demo ratings points out of first in the NBC line-up (“Heroes” was at 4.9 this week), and tied with “L&O: SVU” for second.

79. hi everyone, final nationals for Thursday confirms the strong 4.7 rating in the key adults 18-49 demo for “The Office” last night (courtesy of TravisYanan from The Programming Insider). Total viewership is at 8.963 million, while the demo share increases to 11%.

    One correction to my earlier post, as I neglected to take into consideration Thursday’s other programs when ranking “The Office”; with the latest final nationals, our little show is tied #8 among the week’s broadcast network programming, with the weekend’s results pending. All other calculations should be correct :)

80. Hi everyone, fast nationals for last night’s “The Office”, courtesy of Berman from Mediaweek. “Branch Wars” was watched by an estimated 8.39 million viewers, with a 4.5/11 in the adults 18-49 demo. Comparably, our little show built by a significant 45% in the demo from lead-in “Earl” (3.1/9), which had a one-hour edition last night. Lead-out “Scrubs” was at 3.7/9. “The Office” was the highest-rated NBC show in the demo for the night (“ER” at 3.9/11). I thought it was a very enjoyable episode last night. Hope everyone else liked it as much as I did :)

81. hi everyone, last night’s “The Deposition” scored 8.797 million viewers, 5.0/7 households and a very impressive 4.8/11 in adults 18-49 (data courtesy of TravisYanan from The Programming Insider). “The Office” built by 50% in the demo from lead-in “30 Rock” (3.2/8), and is only behind “Heroes” (5.2/12) in terms of NBC scripted programming for the week starting November 17.

82. This is exciting! Over 9 million? The fan base is growing, folks!

83. What a great episode.

    There was so much packed into each scene.

84. just wanted to update you with the final Nielsen numbers which were even a bit better:

    5.4/8 (HH rating/share)
    9,334,000 viewers
    4.9/12 (18-49 rating/share)

    It seems like almost everyone who watched was 18-49!

85. Nicely done everyone.

86. 9.8 million? And an impressive demo?

    Something tells me people missed this show.

87. 9.81!! great, hope it expands even more next week. This was a solid episode.

88. Bales where would we be without you :) hehehe

    Thanks for the info!

89. I always watch delayed on my Tivo I sure hope my numbers show up somewhere. Does anybody know how DVR numbers are accounted for?

90. @ 91:

    I’m not 100% sure but tvbythenumbers.com has data for people who watched it live.. then people who watched it within 7 days of it being shown live on their DVR.

    I assume they get the information from TiVo and DirecTV and whatever DVRs people use.

91. I’ve never been good with figuring ratings out (to me they’re just confusing) but it looks like last night’s episode was their highest yet? Am I wrong? Either way, it is very well deserved!!!!

92. It will be interesting to see what happens next week when Office is up against a new episode of Lost.

93. Thanks Justin.

94. hi ShunnedRyan, I think it’s “Grey’s” that “The Office” will come up with next week (sorry about this if I’m mistaken), and “Lost” follows at 10pm. Either way, it’ll be mammoth competition…still, “The Office” is garnering awesome numbers, and hopefully it’ll continue when new eps of Grey’s and CSI returns :)

95. Next week, Lost will be on at 10pm EST, so it’ll instead be up against Grey’s.

96. Shunned Ryan,

    “The Office” won’t be up against “Lost”. “Lost” will air @ 10, however it will be up against a new episode of “Grey’s Anatomy”. Fortunately, for me, it being up against “GA” doesn’t present any conflicts for me, but if it had been up against “Lost” … well then. I’d have to be flipping back and forth during the first half hour. But it won’t, so I won’t. :)

97. Emily,

    I believe last night’s episode was the highest rated episode this season, but not overall. Looking back, if I read it correctly it looks like “Traveling Salesman” in January 2007 had a larger audience (10.1 million).

98. Lost is actually coming on at 10, not 9 like the office.

99. Ah, that’s good. Lost and Office are my 2 favorites and I don’t like to tape either.

100. The Office was up against Grey’s earlier this season. It did fine. I suppose we might lose few viewers, but that’s okay. Grey’s Anatomy is my 2nd favorite, so I’ll tape it for sure. :)

101. Big demo win for NBC last night, thanks to The Office. Reference is zap2it

102. Great Episode last night!! I laughed like crazy. I was intrigued by the actor playing “Paul Faust” Is he related to the Baldwin’s? Does anyone have any info on him? He was sexy. We need a new hottie on the show!

103. Was it a coincidence that in 30 Rock that night, Dennis proposed to Liz.. and we all know what happened in The Office..

104. I just read that The Office was the 21st most watched show last week! Very exciting. It could be in the top twenty of it’s does well this week opposite Grey’s Anatomy. Only time will tell.

105. Back to normal ratings with CSI and McDreamy back on the air too.

106. Well I guess people really are still watching Greys based on that ratings decline. Darnit!

107. Disappointing ratings after two solid weeks. I hope the ratings pick up next week.

108. Pretty obvious the Office isn’t doing so well anymore with Grey’s back. That sucks though. The Office is way better.

109. Some of my (ex) best friends switched backed to Grey’s last night. They enjoyed the last two episodes of the office but are die hard Grey’s fans.

110. I’m not sure why Grey’s Anatomy is so popular, it is a rip off of SCRUBS! It just has a more dramatic feel. Even the story lines are the same. The Office is original (minus the BBC series)and hilarious, how does it not bring in more than 10 million consistently?

111. It’s sad that a lame show like Grey’s Anatomy is viewed more than The Office.

112. Don’t people know, you’re supposed to watch The Office first, then watch Grey’s Anatomy so you can fast forward through the majority of commercials in the first half hour, then rewatch The Office.

113. I actually love grey’s anatomy..but i made the obvious choice in watching the office rather than grey’s…grey’s can wait =) haha

114. The low numbers weren’t all because of CSI and Greys. In fact, both CSI and Greys had 4 million viewers less than the usually get. The Office couldn’t have lost too many viewers to these shows.

     All across the night, numbers were down. Was there some holiday I missed?

     Maybe Nielsen forgot to count a region or something…

115. Would the NBA Playoffs have anything to do with the drop in viewers?

116. In addition to NBA there was also NHL playoffs. It’s funny someone mentioned it being a holiday yesterday. My mail came 3 hours later than it normally would have and my brother came in and said “Is today a holiday or something?” 3 Day weekend!

117. I bet the DVR viewer rating will be a big boost to the ratings. I wasn’t home last night to watch it, but many people who watched Grey’s were. We’ll all be watching it on the DVR.

118. I still will never understand why they put The Office up against Grey’s. If it was up against something else it would probably win in it’s time slot.

119. Wow, that’s strange. Viewers drop. It was a strange episode, though.

120. I love ‘the office’ (my favorite show ever).. However, I was watching the NBA play-offs. Most of the people that I know were doing the same thing. Pretty simple explanation. Grey’s blows.

121. MediaWeek has an interesting bit on the ratings – comparing year over year, The Office still beat 30 Rock’s performance in the 9:00 time slot even against the new episodes of Grey’s and CSI. So even with the full point drop for The Office week over week, it’s still doing well for NBC, and especially with younger viewers.

     Link

122. I cannot say this enough….

     The post-strike episodes are AWESOME!!!!!

     Tips cap to the Office writing staff.

123. I’m of a different opinion – I don’t think the shows have been as crisp or as well written since the writer’s strike. Michael seems to be searching for his theme and the attempt at interspersed seriousness
     (Stanley stutter) undercuts the wackiness of the premise and the characters. Maybe THAT’s why viewership is off.

124. My guess is that viewership ratings are down overall since the strike, and that the ratings for The Office were artificially inflated for the first couple of weeks because it was the *only* thing on (whereas, usually, it is not).

     Here’s hoping the ratings go back up, though!

125. Like LovesItalianFood, I’m loving each second of the post-strike episodes too! (Awww…only two more weeks till the end of the season? Too soon!) Anyway, I think “The Office” is doing great, creatively and ratings-wise. Berman keeps listing it under “Winners”, and for good reason: it’s practically an island of high-demo performance for NBC on a tough night, in a brutal timeslot, and with practically no support or help from a lead-in (or lead-out) at all (no offense to “Scrubs” or “30 Rock”).

126. More viewers! Probably because of last week’s absurd Grey’s Anatomy. But we deserve it.

127. Yay! Most-viewed finale! (right?)

128. I love looking at the recording numbers and thinking mine was one of those DVRs! I would die without my DVR…

129. So if I am reading this correctly, only 5.8 million people watched the office finale live? Yikes NBC

130. The Office is a bit underrated in the TV world. We need more viewers!

131. I can’t tell from these numbers exactly how much more popular the show has gotten over the years. I’d like a line graph.