Ratings News - 15th October 2010 - How did Fringe, Grey's, Bones etc do?

Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:
CBS Wins; Adult 18-49 Race Ongoing Between ABC and CBS

Thursday 10/14/10
Note: The overnight data now includes DVR playback until 3 a.m. local time. One year earlier it was based on Live data only.

HH
Rtg/Shr
CBS 8.9/14
ABC 6.1/10
Fox 5.0/ 8
NBC 3.8/ 6
CW 1.3/ 2

----------

-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Thursday, October 15, 2009):
Fox: +11, CBS: + 5, NBC: + 3, ABC: -10, CW: -38

----------

-Yesterday’s Winners:
The Big Bang Theory (CBS), CSI (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), The Mentalist (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Community (NBC), Fringe (Fox), Outsourced (NBC), The Apprentice (NBC)

----------

-Ratings Breakdown:
CBS dominated this third Thursday of the new season in the overnights, beating second-place ABC by a hefty 46 percent. But the race between key adults 18-49 will, no doubt, be much closer. Third overall was Fox, followed by NBC and a night of repeats on The CW. Since The CW debuted most of its series prior to the Sept. 20 season start date, it has more non-original telecasts to burn-off.

CBS’ relocated The Big Bang Theory opened with a very dominant 8.9 rating/15 share at 8 p.m., which is a marked improvement over year-ago occupant Survivor: Samoa (6.2/10 from 8-9 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2009). Next on the Eye net was week four of $#*! My Dad Says at a 6.6/10 at 8:30 p.m., followed by CSI (#1: 9.3/15) and standout The Mentalist (#1: 9.8/17) from 9-11 p.m. While the retention for $#*! My Dad Says out of The Big Bang Theory -- 74 percent -- could have been better, the good news for the William Shatner comedy was slight growth from one week earlier. In other words, $#*! My Dad Says is inching closer to a full season renewal. Take a look at the four-week overnight track:

$#*! My Dad Says (CBS)
9/23/10: 7.7/12
9/30/10: 6.7/11
10/07/10: 6.3/10
10/14/10: 6.6/10

ABC filled the Thursday 8 p.m. hour vacated by My Generation with another repeat of Grey’s Anatomy (#4: 3.4/ 5), followed by original installments of Grey’s Anatomy (#2: 8.9/14) and spin-off Private Practice (#2: 6.0/10) from 9-11 p.m. As always, expect Grey’s Anatomy to win the 9 p.m. time period among adults 18-49, with the 10 p.m. hour a close call between Private Practice and The Mentalist.

On Fox, Bones remains a more than adequate player with a second-place 6.5/11 in the overnights at 8 p.m. (and a first-place finish at 8:30 p.m.: 6.7/11). But lead-out Fringe finished fourth in the 9 p.m. hour, with a 3.7/ 6 (and retention out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of Bones, 6.7/11, of just 55 percent).

Over at NBC, the live edition of 30 Rock (which did not have one single laugh in this viewer’s opinion), rose to a third-place 4.9/ 8 in the overnights at 8:30 p.m. -- 48 percent above struggling lead-in Community (#4: 3.3/ 5 at 8 p.m.). As I say every week, Community is not strong enough to anchor the evening.

At 9 p.m., NBC’s The Office finished a typical third with a 5.2/ 8, but week four of lead-out Outsourced remained a disappointment at a 3.8/ 6. While that was consistent from one week earlier, demographically it is expected to once again lose a large chuck of The Office lead-in. Here is the four-week overnight track for Outsourced:

Outsourced (NBC)
9/23/10: 5.0/ 8
9/30/10: 4.1/ 6
10/07/10: 3.8/ 6
10/14/10: 3.8/ 6

Capping off the evening for NBC was sinking The Apprentice at a very distant third-place 3.0/ 5 in the overnights at 10 p.m.

Last, and very least, were repeats of The Vampire Diaries (1.3/ 2) and Nikita (1.2/ 2) on The CW.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback