Ratings News - 7th April 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:
Idol Ignited Fox Wins, but Breaking In Opener Lackluster

Wednesday 4/06/11
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 12.9/20
CBS 6.9/11
NBC 3.7/ 6
ABC 3.3/ 5
CW 1.2/ 2

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-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday 4/07/10):
Fox: +39, CBS: + 1, ABC: - 3, NBC: -18, CW: -37

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Survivor: Redemption Island (CBS), Criminal Minds (CBS), Law & Order: SVU (NBC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Minute to Win It (NBC), America’s Next Top Model (CW), Breaking In (Fox), Shedding for the Wedding (CW), Mr. Sunshine (ABC), Off the Map (ABC), Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (CBS)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by American Idol, it was clear sailing for Fox on Wednesday with an advantage over second-place CBS of 6.0 overnight household rating points. In the distant No. 3 spot was NBC, followed by ABC and The CW.

A 90-minute edition of blockbuster American Idol scored a 15.1 rating/24 share from 8-9:30 p.m., building by half-hour as follows:

American Idol (Fox)
8:00 p.m.: 14.2/23 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 15.3/24 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 15.8/24 (#1)

That led into the series-premiere of sitcom Breaking In, which dipped to second at 9:30 p.m. with a 6.4/10 in the overnights. While that might seem acceptable on paper, retention out of the 9:00 p.m. portion of American Idol was only 41 percent. When a series loses more than half the lead-in, particularly a premiere, there is no future.

As always, Survivor: Redemption Island on CBS pales in comparison to competing American Idol. But a second-place 6.6/10 in the overnights in the 8 p.m. hour is still a strong performance. SPOILER ALERT: If you did not see last night’s episode of Survivor yet stop reading now. What started out very satisfying seeing hardworking Matt back in the game ended on a sour note when the too trustworthy Matt ended up back on Redemption Island. Rule of thumb: never tell Boston Rob anything. He will stab you right in the back. But there is still hope, of course, for the naïve Matt who must keep his competitive winning nature alive.

Survivor, of course, led into underrated Criminal Minds (#2: 8.6/14 at 9 p.m.), which never gets the attention it deserves, followed by freshman spin-off Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior at a second-place 5.6/ 9 in the overnights at 10 p.m. Competing Law & Order: SVU on NBC (#1: 6.2/11) beat Suspect Behavior by 11 percent and the retention out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of parent Criminal Minds (9.2/14) was only 61 percent. Welcome to the listing of “losers,” Suspect Behavior.

Over at ABC, two repeat episodes of The Middle from 8-9 p.m. (#3, avg. 3.2/ 5) and an encore telecast of Emmy winning Modern Family (#3: 3.8/ 6 at 9 p.m.) set the stage for a weak evening. Minus the lead-in support, original episodes of recent entries Mr. Sunshine (#3: 3.5/ 5) and Off the Map (#3: 3.1/ 5) could not compete from 9:30-11 p.m.

Elsewhere, NBC game show Minute to Win It continues to be lost opposite American Idol and Survivor, with a fourth-place 2.2/ 3 in the overnights at 8 p.m. How much lower can you go? Next on NBC was a repeat of Law & Order: SVU (#4: 2.7/ 4 at 9 p.m.), followed by the aforementioned original installment at a dominant 6.2/11 at 10 p.m. While ratings for SVU pale in comparison to its heyday, the advantage over Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior on CBS makes this a “winning” performance.

Over at The CW, once reliable America’s Next Top Model has sprung a leak, with a last-place 1.8/ 3 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Compared to one year earlier (3.0/ 5 on April 6, 2010), this is a loss of a very noticeable 40 percent. Had The CW been in a better position, it would be wise to give Top Model a rest. Next was Shedding for the Wedding with an embarrassing (and very last place) 0.7/ 1 from 9-10 p.m. Host Sara Rue would be wise to stick to acting and avoid this reality/competition dribble.

And there you have it…that’s Wednesday.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback