Nierlsen Media Research says the most DVR'd program of 2009 was "Battlestar Galactica", with a 59.4 percent increase in viewing when you account for "time-shifted" viewing.
The sci-fi series, which completed its run on Syfy Channel earlier this year, tops the list of DVR'd shows compiled by the company that provides ratings statistics for the TV industry.
"Mad Men" is second, with a 57.7 percent increase in viewing when you count DVR-delayed viewing.
Here's the rest of the list, with the network or cable channel, and the percentage increase in viewing from DVR use, as tallied by Nielsen:
3. "Damages," FX, 56.3 percent
4. "Rescue Me," FX, 53.2 percent
5. "True Blood," HBO, 46.9 percent
6. "Stargate Universe," Syfy, 46.9 percent
7. "Sanctuary," Syfy, 45.9 percent
8. "Heroes," NBC, 45.9 percent
9. "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," Fox, 45.5 percent
10. "10 Things I Hate About You," ABC Family, 44.9 percent
10. "Dollhouse," Fox, 44.9 percent
10. "Melrose Place," CW, 44.9 percent
The list is heavy on sci-fi and fantasy, making it look like younger male viewers -- the targets of those kinds of shows, are the biggest users of DVRs. It also includes shows, like "Terminator" and "Dollhouse," that already have been canceled by Fox.
DVR use is likely to be an increasingly important measurement of TV viewing as the technology expands.
In addition to the DVR list, Nielsen's end-of-the year tallies include the top single broadcasts of 2009, with football grabbing nine of the top-10 slots.
The Academy Awards came in seventh place.
That list demonstrates how football towers over all other professional sports, when it comes to TV viewing.
On TV: NBC launches a four-night "Sing-Off" at 7 tonight on Channel 4 with a two-hour episode of the show the features a cappella groups battling for a recording contract.
- Fox tries out a live prime-time cooking show with foul-mouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay at 8 p.m. Tuesday on Channel 6. You can prepare by cook along with "Cookalong Live" by going to the Web site and downloading the list of ingredients you'll need to prepare a three-course dinner.
- Jim Peck chats with me about my journalism career and my move to OnMilwaukee.com tonight at 6:30 on Milwaukee Public TV's "I Remember" on Channel 10. It repeats at 12:30 a.m. on Channel 36.
- Syfy has renewed "Stargate Universe" and "Sanctuary."
Sarah takes on Bill: If you missed Friday night's "Tonight Show," here's the video of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin reading from William Shatner's memoir to counter his reading from her book.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
