• by David Goetzl , January 2, 2007

Media buyers take note: Once is not enough. Just ask DVR owners. Season rankings for the most-watched shows with DVRs give rise to several conclusions: Upscale shows and programs in competitive time slots are heavily recorded, while high-profile sports events are almost always viewed live.

NBC's "The Office"--where a recent episode saw 23% of 18- to-49-year-old viewers watch with a DVR in the seven days after broadcast--is the show most heavily viewed, with a DVR by this demo. Over the first three months of the season, an average 16% of these viewers watched "Office" episodes via DVRs in the week after broadcast.

The percentage represents the increase between the "live" rating and "live plus seven" rating. "Live plus seven" adds viewership via DVRs in the seven days after broadcast to the number of people that watched in real-time.

Fox's "The OC" is ranked second, with a 15% average of 18- to-49-year-old viewers watching with a DVR in the seven days after broadcast, while NBC's "Studio 60" and ABC's "Lost" are also in the top five, with 14% averages.

At the bottom of the list is NBC's "Sunday Night Football," where a mere 1% average of 18- to-49-year-olds recorded it and watched it over the next week. Viewers eager to watch sports live have been augmented by ABC's "Saturday Night Football" scraping the bottom, with a 1.2% average DVR viewership.

Another wrinkle: The season's top-rated 18-to-49 show--ABC's "Desperate Housewives"--is ranked 34th in average percentage of viewers watching with DVRs (9%), suggesting that viewers hunger to watch it "live"--it's appointment television. The show also likely benefited from "Sunday Night Football" ending in the Pacific Time Zone before "Housewives" aired, weakening its head-to-head competition considerably and driving down DVR recording.

And both nights of the highly rated "Dancing with the Stars" posted very little DVR viewing (both in the 4% range) on average--suggesting that as with sports, viewers didn't want to wait for the results. (The show also airs live on the East Coast.) ABC's "Dancing" also has one of the highest median ages on television--53.1--and older viewers are not believed to be as DVR-savvy or pervasive as younger ones.

Among the possible reasons for "The Office" generating the highest DVR viewership are its upscale profile and competitive time slot against ABC's "Ugly Betty" and CBS' "Survivor," suggesting that viewers are watching one show live and recording another.

Similarly, "The OC" runs in the Thursday 9 p.m. power hour, where it competes against "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI." "The OC" also skews younger (median age is 32.3--12th youngest on TV, by one measure). Its viewers probably have a higher percentage of DVRs than the public at-large. It also is a low-rated show, where even small DVR-aided ratings increases on average lead to a significant "live plus seven" boost.

"Studio 60's" higher level of DVR consumption is probably attributable to two factors: A high percentage of upscale viewers and time-period competition from big-time hit CBS' "CSI: Miami," which has only 7% "live plus seven" average increases. "Lost" falls into the same boat--an upscale skew and a time-period battle with CBS' "Criminal Minds," which has an 8% average DVR increase.

Also, both "Studio 60" and "Lost" are serials, suggesting that viewers would record them to avoid missing an episode and falling behind on developing story lines.

Another theory as to why some shows generate heavy DVR-aided viewing is their slots in the 8 p.m. hour (7 p.m. in the Central and Mountain Time Zones). In today's increasingly busy world, some viewers have trouble sitting down for prime-time viewing that early in the evening. That point was buttressed by NBC's recent announcement that it is exploring lower-cost programming in the prime-time entry hour.

Shows ranked in the top-10 most-watched with DVRs that air in the 8 p.m. hour include "The Office," Fox's "Prison Break" (13% "live plus seven" increase), NBC's "My Name is Earl" (13%) and Fox's "Bones" (12%).

Not surprisingly, CW shows with young-skewing audiences also had high percentages of DVR viewing: "One Tree Hill," "Gilmore Girls," and "Supernatural" (all 10%). "One Tree Hill" has the youngest median age on broadcast TV by one measure: 26.4.