Nielsen Reveals Top Shows of 2011

NEW YORK: FOX’s American Idol remains the top prime-time program in the U.S., a spot its held since its fifth season in 2007, according to Nielsen’s Top 10 of 2011 list.

American Idol‘s Wednesday run on FOX averaged 23.9 million viewers in 2011, 8.1 percent of U.S. TV viewers over the age of 2. American Idol‘s Thursday airing followed in the number two spot for prime-time shows. Dancing with the Stars and the Dancing with the Stars Results show, as well as NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles were also featured in the top 10.

The value of time-shifted viewing was evident in 2011, with programs nearly doubling their audience when factoring in viewing from sources such as DVR, VOD and StartOver. The freshman FX original American Horror Story gained the highest audience share through time-shifted viewing in 2011. The series, which was the most time-shifted program on the year, had 95 percent more viewers time-shifted than live. USA’s Covert Affairs and Suits followed as the second and third most time-shifted shows, respectively. TNT’s Franklin & Bash and USA’s Psych round out the top five. Also making the top 10 are FX’s Sons of Anarchy, USA’s White Collar, FX’s Justified, FOX’s Fringe and A&E’s The Glades.

NBC’s fantasy drama Grimm was the most engage prime-time show of the year, based on program engagement of the percent of viewers who can recall within 24 hours the network content they were exposed to during the normal course of watching TV. ABC’s Suburgatory, Desperate Housewives and Revenge, as well as USA’s Royal Pains, White Collar and Covert Affairs also make the list of engaging shows. As do NBC’s Parenthood and Chuck and FX’s Rescue Me. Among the top 10 most engaging prime-time programs, Chuck garnered 54 percent of the "buzz" volume, according to NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company. Desperate Housewives followed in a distant second with 16 percent.