RATINGS: Chuck Season 4 Premieres Against Tough Competition

The fast overnight ratings are in and Chuck was up a few points over the end of season 3. Against record-breaking viewership for Dancing With The Stars (up 22% over last season’s premiere), Chuck averaged 6.06 million viewers and a 2.1 in the important 18-49 demographic. By comparison, the House season premiere dropped significantly over last season. While we’re pleased to see an increase over season 3’s low ending numbers, we hope the fabulousness of the new season sees these premiere numbers trending up in coming weeks.

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44 comments

  1. That is very good news. I feared worse. With The Event doing great, that bodes well for additional episodes.

    Hopefully, we can grow that number.

    • It wasn’t what I was hoping. Next week should/could be better if some network I could mention would stop promoting stupid new shows and start promoting this one more we could have more fighting chance.

  2. That’s definitely good news…Not nearly what we’d all like it to be, but the fact that it came up from the end of last season is good. I’m pretty sure it was up in viewership as well from the end of Season 3; is that correct, Mel?

    Anyway, let’s keep promoting this show, folks!

    LONG LIVE TEAM BARTOWSKI!!! LONG LIVE CHUCK!!!

    • Chuck was up from the Season 3 finale, but so was total viewers for the hour by roughly the same percentage.

    • yes and better episode to top it off they were traveling the world more, more extensive stuntwork and other things which gave chuck everything this series didnt have I felt like I was watching a movie this is the both the best season premere and the best episode in the series

  3. Hopefully with the reasonably strong ratings from the event, a good number of viewers will trickle back to watch chuck. Only time will tell, but hopefully we will pick up viewers and fans from the other NBC series.

  4. Hopefully the numbers are strong enough for NBC to order more shows for this season. The thought of only 3 months of Chuck and then a LONG drought or worse 🙁 is not a happy one. On the up side, the numbers increased and that’s better than the alternative.

  5. what would be a fair estimation of the amount of viewers needed to get the rest of the season

    • Impossible to say right now, it’s all about NBC’s performance overall. If NBC’s new shows mostly tank in the next few weeks, hovering around a 2.0 will almost certainly be good enough. But if they mostly take off, Chuck would probably need at least a 2.5 average to even be considered for another season (and then likely only as a mid-season replacement).

      • true. the real question isnt probably even how many they gain off the premier but how many they can keep and take after all the promotion and hype that goes into a season premier is over and the season actually begins

  6. I am a huge fan of CHUCK and I am completly obsessed with show, but due to the fact that NBC barely even promoted the show and its competition (House, Dancing with the Stars, etc.) all were heavily promoted, I thought (dont kill me for saying this) CHUCK was going to get a 0.9 in the demo. But wow a 2.1 despite almost no promotion for the show is awesome. Maybe if they had promoted it more the show would have gotten a 3.0 in the demo. Hopefully they will promot the show more for the second ep so we can get more viewers and hopefully work toward getting a season 5. 🙂

  7. 2.1 is “okay”. Not “good”, but probably meets expectations. We’ll need to see how other returning NBC shows perform this week, and how the new NBC shows are doing after they settle in a few weeks to know if it’s “good enough” though.

    Remember, it’s not so much how Chuck compares to other shows in it’s timeslot, it’s also how it does compared to other shows on NBC.

  8. Poor Chuck… such stiff competition in the 8-9 Monday evening timeslot! People need to stop watching stupid DWTS and tune in to NBC instead! 🙂

  9. Great!,I hope the rating will only rise from now,But I am angry that I can´t watch chuck live..I am from Slovakia and i dont have the NBC channel + we have here about 3 am morning vhen chuck starts.:)

  10. If the season is like what we saw last night, we’ll have NO PROBLEM getting people to watch. That was amazing. Also, I’d like to ask a question. Was Chuck proposing in the promo at the end?

    See You Monday and Bring Your Friends,

    John
    Indiana Buy-Moria Embassy
    A Shoutout to all the Chuck Fans In The Midwest! Show Me Where You Are!!

  11. NBC honestly did a horrible job of promoting the show, no where near as good as last year when there was commercials for it almost a month ahead of time. This year I didn’t even see one… damn you NBC!

    • Seriously… I’ve followed the crap out of this show for 3 years, and I missed the season premier because, although I knew it was due to air… I forgot — no commercials!! Luckily I still had my DVR set up to record new episodes.

      How do they expect to snag new viewers for a premier if they can’t even advertise enough to notify people who already like the show that it’s coming?

    • That’s because season 3 premiered when no other NBC shows were premiering, so all of the ad budget could be spent on Chuck. In the fall, the networks spend the most money advertising their new shows with a few promos for returning shows thrown in a week or so before they premiere. For example, so far I’ve only seen 1 promo for 30 Rock and The Office, but loads for Undercovers. So it’s not just Chuck that’s getting this treatment, and it’s not just NBC that does this. For better or worse, that’s the model that the networks feel is their best return on investment for advertising dollars.

  12. They just adjusted the rating..It is now a 2.0 =(

  13. At least it wasn’t below 2.0. It could have been worse. DWTS abliterates everything in it’s path and that really sucks. House was down too so I don’t feel as bad as I could be.

  14. Tim B makes a good point. I would love to see the cast of Chuck on the cover of EW Weekly (or TV Guide) that has never happened to my knowledge since the show began. I understand that for a lot of people “print is dead” but EW magazine does have a high subscription rate and it is in just about every salon and Dr. office. Seems strange to me that so many other shows get exposure in comparison to Chuck.

  15. according to zap2it.com, Chuck has slightly better numbers:

    NBC: “Chuck” season premiere (6.1 million, 3.5/5)

    • Yep, that’s the one I saw this morning too. I like that one better. I think that there is a rating for people who DVR the show (like me) but that probably comes out later in the week.

    • That 3.5/5 is household ratings, not the 18-49 demographic (unfortunately), so Zap2It’s numbers are essentially the same as what TVBN reported yesterday.

  16. The competition to Chuck on Monday nights includes on other thing. In my time zone – which includes California and Washington in the US – it is basically up against the last hour of Monday night football. Not sure how many NFL fans are potential Chuck fans, but I can’t be the only one. As a Niners fan, it took all the Nerd Herd willpower I have to focus on Chuck. That could be a problem till mid January.

  17. Seriously, NBC needs to promote the hell out of this show! I’ve gone 3 years without hearing about this show until I finally gave it a spin a couple of weeks ago. One of the greatest shows that has the whole package on TV right now. It feels as though they want the show to die. Those numbers could have been FAR higher had they given it the equal opportunity to do so through promotion. Before I looked into the ratings I thought the show could and should probably end around season 6 if it was going to but now after getting into the TV politics I see that being more of a fantasy at this point. NBC you already killed people when you murdered Heroes and if that could happen where does the beloved Chuck stand 🙁

  18. Right now the whole rating thing is just a guess game to me.

  19. It does seem rather clear that NBC has given more promotion to the other new shows on Monday night compared to Chuck. Compared to last’s years promotion of Chuck this year seemed limited to a week before the premier.

    I know the primary cast members of Chuck are busy filming every week but it sure would be nice if some of the others like Linda Hamilton could share their enthusiasm about Chuck with as many media outlets as possible. The puzzling thing to me is why NBC’s Today Show doesn’t do more to promote the good NBC shows like Chuck.

  20. “DWTS obliterates everything in its path”… what has the world come to?

    Now people can actually get money and fame… for having money and fame… while talented actors and writers sit in the shadows of high-profile celebrities’ high profiles.

    DWTS and all other reality TV is so shallow because they try to make it look like it’s all real or like it really matters or something… Even shallow scripted shows aren’t that dumb because at least they sell their junk for what it is!!

    I can’t stand that reality TV is still having so much success and that people don’t realize what they’ve been sucked into. It is seriously dumbing down our culture. Kids are going to grow up idolizing celebrities even more so than the previous generations of people that allowed the Paris Hilton fire to be ignited.

    I’ve already decided that once Chuck goes off the air… I’m done with television with exception to America’s Funniest Home Videos, Comedy Central, and sports for the rest of my life.

  21. Do ratings every consider Canada, or is it just the Americans?

    • Just the U.S. market. NBC does not have broadcasting rights outside the U.S., so they don’t make any money from Chuck when it airs elsewhere.

  22. Probably the ratings are for US.

    Anyway, I don’t see what’s the relevance of the ratings for us, the viewers. I personally enjoyed the first episode of this season. It was funny, full of action, had some nice twists. Of course low audiences means low profit for the producers which could lead to a premature end of the show. But let’s hope that won’t happen and audiences will increase over the next few weeks.

  23. I think NBC pretty much figures that Chuck is cult show and that it has is fans. I sorry but i do not see it going up in the ratings. I afraid it might go down though. This was a premier remember and usually shows go down after that. I hope i wrong though. I really really hope i wrong. Dont think I am though

  24. I watch Chuck and record Dancing with the Stars to see the results of the Dancing–to me at least, the dancing has less interest than in years past. I always watch Chuck in its regular time slot and record it on dvds for my personal viewing later.(I still buy the dvds-both regular and blueray). I also watch replays of Chuck online. I think Chuck is the networks best opportunity for reasonable market share–any other show would be humiliated by the competition. With the positive signs Chuck will be a much improved show this year we all need to help attract additional viewers. The lack of the despised angst factor and the togetherness of Chuck and Sarah has really improved the consistently good qualities of the show. The increased comedy of Sarah (yes Sarah), Casey and Morgan have really upgraded the humor and increased the satisfaction of this viewer. Hopefully we will have many more seasons of the Chuck team. I think it is great entertainment for us and good business for the network.

    • I’m as big a Chuck fan as the next guy, but out of curiosity, why do you (a) watch the show live, (b) record the show on DVDs, (c) buy regular DVDs, (d) buy blu-ray DVDs, AND (e) watch the show online?

      Isn’t that a bit excessive (especially buying both regular and blu-ray DVDs!)? You must be the biggest Chuck fan on the planet!

  25. Man that premier was GREAT!!! I love that the show is back and in full swing. I do agree that NBC needs to do a lot more promoting for the show. I mean I can’t even count how many times I saw The Event and Chase on NBC. No wonder we always have to fight to get our show back. But I loved it and can’t wait till next Monday!!! ROCK ON CHUCK!!! P.S follow me on Twitter so I can talk to people about the show Balexanderj is my name!!!! Thanks to all that make CHUCK Awesome!!!

  26. You can get pretty sad after you’ve read all these comments (That’s me :(). But you should consider what Gray, Mel & Liz often mentioned that NBC probably considers the Nielsen ratings for their desicions but also things like Facebook, Twitter and so on. And like they said, NBC has put other shows on Monday and their ratings were smashed completely so Chuck is probably their best Monday show.
    Always remember that!

    P.S.: In the end of course I’m hoping too for a better rating, 2.5 or higher would be great!

  27. Don’t forget about the number of people that watch it over the web too. The more hits they get from people watching the show on the internet the more their numbers change.

  28. not being in U.S. I wasn’t able to watch full episodes of Chuck on nbc.com but I am able to see some videos, read spynotes and play games so from time to time I go there to check things out, lately I find that there are ads before the videos which means a source of revenue for nbc and if international Chucksters can visit the Chuck site on nbc.com from time to time to watch videos and play games that should help, nbc can show the number of hits to its advertisers etc., this might be a way for international fans to help Chuck.

  29. Hello I’m from Brazil, I love watching Chuck and many Brazilians as well. is unfortunate we can not contribute to the audience of the show, hope you can next season for us all. thanks

  30. i’m not usually a big tv fan basicly chuck is the only show i watch but i must have watched every episode of chuck at least 60 times and this season has very good potential to be the best season to date

  31. nbc should promote their shows without favoring anyone. chuck is a good show and the last episode 4×2 was incredibly awesome. the fight scene between sarah and the victoria’s secret model was totally great! chuck fans! let’ fight for the show!!!

  32. Im from Australia, chuck isn’t aired down under and i can’t watch it on NBC site. It needs better ratings if we hope to get a fifth season, So on behlf of Australia i plead with all americans to do their duty and watch chuck every monday!

  33. I’m from Ireland and chuck season 3 is only ending..it’ll b a long time before season 4 starts here. Please all American chuckers try 2 tune in and get us a lot more seasons to come!!!