• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 3, 2006

"Grey's Anatomy" has broken the two-tenths barrier. The ABC drama is the first top-25 program in the 18 to 49 demo to receive a bump of two-tenths of a point in Nielsen's new ratings that include DVR usage. For the week of Jan. 9-15--the most recent data available--"Grey's" posted an 8.5 mark in "live" ratings and an 8.7 in "live plus seven day" ratings. The latter category aggregates viewers who watched a program live with those who watched with a DVR in the seven days after the show aired.

Nielsen has made available three weeks worth of the data, and while a handful of shows have shown a jump of a tenth of a point in DVR-included ratings, "Grey's Anatomy" is the first to improve by two-tenths.

The data still raises question marks, in part because during the Jan. 9-15 week only 96 DVR homes were included in the Nielsen sample of some 10,000. That number is now up to about 152, and Nielsen promises to reach the national DVR average of seven percent (700) by summer.

Other shows that saw a one-tenth bump Jan. 9-15 include dramas "Lost," "24," "House," and "CSI: NY," and comedies "My Name is Earl," "The Office," and "Four Kings." Reinforcing conventional thinking that both sports and competitive reality shows will largely be unaffected by DVR usage since viewers hunger to watch them live, both the AFC playoff game on CBS and "Dancing with the Stars" saw their ratings unaffected by DVRs.

One of the principal issues that buyers and sellers will have to sort out in the upfront is how to attach a price tag to DVR-infused ratings.