• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, March 5, 2018

A battle of two TV shows with the word “Good” in their titles seems to have ended in a draw. That’s the conclusion you might reach from the dueling press releases that came out of NBC and ABC last week each declaring victory in the shows’ first-ever face-off at 10 p.m. Eastern on Monday night.

The shows were “Good Girls” -- making its much-ballyhooed debut on NBC -- and “The Good Doctor,” the ABC hit now in its first season about a young surgeon on the autism scale. “The Good Doctor” had a new episode up against the premiere of “Good Girls.”

In an effort to provide a window into the world of journalists who write about television, here is how the subject lines were composed on the respective ratings press releases from the two networks that turned up in the email inbox on Tuesday morning.

NBC's subject line: “ ‘Good Girls’ Tops ‘Good Doctor,’ Is #1 Scripted Show of the Night.”

ABC's subject line: “ABC's ‘The Good Doctor’ Returns Beating NBC's ‘Good Girls’ Debut by 1.8 Million Viewers on Monday at 10 p.m.”

As many readers can guess, the conflicting assertions made here are based on different measures of success.

When one opens the NBC email, one learns that NBC’s claim is based on the demo ratings, not the total-audience figures. While NBC’s email subject line omits the hyphenated demo designation “18-49,” the news release in the body of the email includes it in the headline.

The headline, in all caps, was: “ ‘GOOD GIRLS’ TOPS ‘THE GOOD DOCTOR’ AS THE NIGHT'S #1 SCRIPTED SHOW IN 18-49 [italics added].”

NBC tends to emphasize the 18-49 performance of its shows based on the mantra that ad sales depend far more on the demo number(s) than on total-audience tallies. And I suppose that's true.

Plus, one gets the feeling that NBC notches more victories in the demo than in total audiences, which helps explain why the network tends to emphasize the former.

For the record, “Good Girls” won its battle with “The Good Doctor” in the 18-49 demo race with a rating of 1.5. “The Good Doctor's” rating in the demo was 1.3.

But “The Good Doctor” had a bigger audience overall -- 7.8 million, compared with 6 million for “Good Girls.”

Not to be outdone, ABC ballyhooed some positive demo news of its own -- not in 18-49 viewers, but in 18-34 viewers. “ABC's younger-skewing lineup ranked No. 1 on Monday with adults 18-34 (1.4/8 -- tied w/NBC),” said ABC's news release (with boldface and underlining liberally applied).

Don't you just love it? ABC declares that it ranks “No. 1,” and in the same sentence concedes it was actually tied with NBC. That doesn't qualify as being “No. 1,” does it? It's a tie.

It reminds me of what our old high school coach used to say about ties, which he loathed. Said he, to illustrate this point: “A tie is like kissing your sister.”

However, in the world of TV ratings promotion, a tie is fine, just as long as it is tied for first place, apparently.

The dueling press releases about ratings that emanate from the networks present a challenge to journalists. We are faced with examining, analyzing and interpreting the claims made by the networks and then arranging and explaining the claims in stories so that readers -- whether they are in the media industry or not -- can then understand them.

This is why, for me, when all is said and done, the total-viewer count represents the most direct way to cut to the chase, which is: How many people watched?

After going head-to-head last Monday, “The Good Doctor” is taking Monday night off this week, leaving “Good Girls” to perform on its own from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. They are scheduled to go back at it next week.