Ratings News - 11th February 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:
Idol Ignited Fox Wins; CBS a Comfortable Second

Thursday 2/10/11
Note: The overnight data now includes DVR playback until 3 a.m. local time. One year earlier it was based on Live data only. All times are ET/PT.

HH
Rtg/Shr
Fox 10.4/16
CBS 8.3/13
ABC 5.7/ 9
NBC 3.2/ 5
CW 1.8/ 3

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Thursday, February 11, 2010):
Fox: +154, CBS: - 9, ABC: -14, NB CW: -18, CW: -22

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

-Down but Not Out:
CSI (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Community (NBC), Perfect Couples (NBC), Outsourced (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by American Idol, Fox is now the network to beat in the Thursday overnights with an advantage over second-place CBS last night of 2.1 rating points. Third overall was ABC, followed by NBC and, of course, The CW.

American Idol opened with a very dominant 14.3 rating/22 share in the overnights at 8 p.m., building from year-ago occupant Bones (5.1/ 8 on Feb. 11, 2010) by a hefty 180 percent. While Bones, now at 9 p.m., is stronger out of Idol, the 6.6/10 last night held only 44 percent of the 8:30 p.m. portion of the music competition (15.0/23). The morale of the story: nothing can maintain the American Idol lead-in.

Despite facing Idol, CBS’ multi season renewed The Big Bang Theory finished a comfortable second, with an 8.8/13 (which remains an improvement over year-ago occupant Survivor). But on-the-fence #$*! My Dad Says, which has found its rhythm thanks to the addition of Jean Smart as William Shatner’s love interest, dipped to a 6.4/10 (also #2) at 8:30 p.m. Comparably, that put the retention out of The Big Bang Theory at a modest 73 percent. Unless CBS expands from three to four hours of comedies next season (an unlikely prospect given the overall strength of its schedule), $#*! My Dad Says is unlikely to return. As a reminder, Rules of Engagement moves into the Thursday 8:30 p.m. half hour on Feb. 24.

CBS stepped into the overnight winners circle at 9 p.m. and stayed there for the remainder of the evening with its combination of CSI (8.1/12) and The Mentalist (9.4/15). At this point, CBS may want to consider flipping CSI and The Mentalist given how much stronger he Mentalist is.

Moving to ABC, Wipeout finished a distant third at 8 p.m., with a 3.9/ 6 in the overnights. Facing American Idol has, no doubt, certainly not helped. Next was Grey’s Anatomy (#2: 7.9/12 at 9 p.m.), which remains the show to beat among adults 18-49, followed by spin-off Private Practice (5.5/ 9 at 10 p.m.), which is also expected to win in the demo (at levels close to NBC’s competing 30 Rock).

Over at NBC, there was nothing unusual to report with its three-hour sitcom block as follows:

Thursday/NBC
8:00 p.m. – Community: 2.8/ 4 (#4)
8:30 p.m. – Perfect Couples: 2.2/ 3 (#4t)
9:00 p.m. – The Office: 4.7/ 7 (#4)
9:30 p.m. – Parks and Recreation: 3.4/ 5 (#4)
10:00 p.m. – 30 Rock: 3.3/ 5 (#3)
10:30 p.m. - Outsourced: 2.6/ 4 (#3)

NBC’s problem, of course, is its lack of any comedies of a breakout nature and it must concentrate on finding a mass appeal hit to anchor the evening with. Although the critical acclaim will likely warrant a third season renewal for Community, recent entry Perfect Couples and fall entry Outsourced are doomed.

The CW capped off the week with its strongest series, The Vampire Diaries (#5: 2.3/ 3), followed by Nikita (#5: 1.4/ 2), which dipped by 36 percent from the 8:30 p.m. portion of The Vampire Diaries. Since The CW is already losing Smallville, chances are one of its two freshman occupants (Hellcats and Nikita) is likely to return in 2011-12. But which one that could be is a question mark.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback