Ratings News - 19th January 2012 *Full Tables Added*

We'll have the full tables and updated Cancellation Chart online shortly. Check the Twitter feed for updates.



Dominant Idol Down but Far From Out on Fox

Wednesday 1/18/12
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
Fox 13.6/21
CBS 7.2/11
ABC 5.6/ 9
NBC 4.3/ 7
CW 0.9/ 1

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Wednesday 1/19/11
CW: +19, NBC: +19, CBS: +11, ABC: +10, Fox: -17

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-Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Modern Family (ABC), Criminal Minds (CBS), CSI (CBS)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
Whitney (NBC), Are You There, Chelsea? (NBC), One Tree Hill (CW), Happy Endings (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
The two-hour 11th season-premiere of American Idol led Fox to a hefty Wednesday overnight victory, no doubt. And it will surely dominate among adults 18-49 and all key demos. But as good as a 13.6 rating/21 share from 8-10 p.m. sounds, it actually dipped by 17 percent from the year-ago season-opener (16.4/24 on 1/19/11). Here is the half-hour breakdown:

American Idol (Fox)
8:00 p.m.: 12.8/20 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 14.1/22 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 13.5/20 (#1)
9:30 p.m.: 13.9/21 (#1)

American Idol host, Ryan Seacrest, whose company Ryan Seacrest Media just announced a joint venture with AEG and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to rebrand HDNet/HDNet Canada as AXS TV, is rumored to be exiting Idol after this season for a co-hosting stint on NBC’s The Today Show. For more on that, click here: http://tinyurl.com/6r6cuw3.

Despite the return of American Idol, CBS held tight with its combination of a repeat of NCIS (#2: 5.8/10), underrated Criminal Minds (#2: 8.1/12) and veteran CSI (#1: 7.6/12), which featured the second-to-last appearance of original cast member Marg Helgenberger. Fans of Survivor, take note: the upcoming edition opens on Feb. 15.

On ABC, Modern Family was the standout, of course, with an 8.3/12 (#2) in the overnights at 9 p.m. Comparably, that outdelivered lead-in Suburgatory at 8:30 p.m. (#3; 4.8/ 7) by 73 percent, but lead-out Happy Endings dipped to a fourth-place 4.2/ 6 at 9:30 p.m. In other words, retention for Happy Endings out of Modern Family was just 51 percent last night. Earlier in the evening on ABC was The Middle at a 5.5/ 9 (#2t) at 8 p.m., with freshman drama Revenge at a second-place 5.4/ 9 at 10 p.m. In a nutshell:

ABC/Wednesday
8:00 p.m. Modern Family: 5.5/ 9 (#2t)
8:30 p.m. Suburgatory: 4.8/ 7 (#3)
9:00 p.m.: Modern Family: 8.3/12 (#2)
9:30 p.m.: Happy Endings: 4.2/ 6 (#4)
10:00 p.m. Revenge: 5.4/ 9 (#2)

The bottom line: ABC lost some steam, but still has an audience on Wednesday opposite American Idol.

In week two news, NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? finished a distant fourth at 8:30 p.m., with a 3.2/ 5 in the overnights. Comparably, that was down by an extensive 30 percent from its week-ago series opener (4.6/ 7 on 1/11/12). Lead-in Whitney also lost steam opposite American Idol, with a 3.3/ 5 (#4) at 8 p.m. One week earlier, Whitney moved into its new Wednesday 8 p.m. time period with a 4.4/ 7.

Next on NBC was older-skewing Harry’s Law, with a 4.6/ 9 from 9-10 p.m. (up 44 percent from Are You There, Chelsea?), followed by long-running Law & Order: SVU at a third-place 5.1/ 9 at 10 p.m. As confirmed at The Winter Press Tour last week, Mariska Hargitay will be back on SVU next season.

Lowly The CW capped off the evening with One Tree Hill (#5: 1.3/ 2), which concludes this spring, and an encore telecast of Remodeled (#5: 0.5/ 1).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights