Ratings News - 16th March 2012 *Full Tables Added*

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Metered Market Thursday Ratings
Solid Start for Missing on ABC

Thursday 3/15/12
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
Fox 7.8/13
ABC 6.8/11
CBS 3.4/ 6
NBC 3.3/ 5
CW 1.8/ 3

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 3/17/11
CW: +100, ABC: +70, NBC: +22, CBS: - 8, Fox: -27

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-Winners:
Missing (ABC), American Idol (Fox), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
2012 NCAA Basketball (CBS), Community (NBC), Parks and Recreation (NBC), Up All Night (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Even a diluted American Idol is a dominant American Idol, and Fox led this third Thursday in March with a 1.0 metered market rating point advantage over second-place ABC. But ABC was the real winner of the evening care of the series-debut of drama Missing, which finished a solid second with a 7.8 rating/13 share in the overnights at 8 p.m. Comparably, Missing beat the series-premiere of short-lived fall time period occupant Charlie’s Angels (6.1/10 on 9/22/11) by 28 percent. It outdelivered year-ago occupant Wipeout (4.2/ 7 on 3/17/11) by 86 percent. And the overnight rating was flat in each half-hour with a 7.8, which means that viewers must have liked what they saw. This is a solid start for Missing.

Next on ABC was veteran Grey’s Anatomy, which won the 9 p.m. hour with a 7.5/12, followed by spin-off Private Practice at an also dominant 5.3/ 9 at 10 p.m. As a reminder, Private Practice will move into the Tuesday 10 p.m. hour out of Dancing With the Stars for four weeks beginning on April 10.

On Fox, aforementioned American Idol opened with a dominant 10.6/17 in the overnights at 8 p.m., which dipped by 21 percent from one year earlier (13.5/22 on 3/17/11). Next was a repeat of the pilot episode of drama Touch at a second-place 5.1/ 8 at 9 p.m., which is certainly respectable for an encore telecast. Touch airs in originals in the Thursday 9 p.m. hour effective next week.

Over at CBS, First Round – Day 1 of 2012 NCAA Basketball averaged an uneventful 3.4/ 6 in the overnights from 8-11 p.m., which dropped by nine percent from the year-ago basketball match-ups (3.7/ 6 on 3/17/11). And the year-ago evening translated into 4.95 million viewers and a 1.7/ 6 among adults 18-49, which of course is well below the Eye net’s regularly scheduled Thursday night line-up.

In return series news, sitcom Community on NBC was above average at a third-place 3.1/ 5 in the overnights at 8 p.m., which increased by 11 percent from the year-ago evening (2.8/ 5 on 3/17/11). But a 3.1 is still nothing to boast about. Next was Parks and Recreation at a fourth-place 2.9/ 5 at 8:30 p.m., followed by The Office (#4: 3.7/ 6) and Up All Night (#4: 2.6/ 4) from 9-10 p.m. The Office, of course, still resonates among adults 18-49. In week three news, NBC drama Awake finished second with a 3.6/ 6 at 10 p.m., which was 22 percent below its debut on 3/01/11. Worth positively noting for Awake was overnight growth out of Up All Night of 38 percent.

The Vampire Diaries on The CW, meanwhile, remains the network’s highest rated show at a 2.2/ 4 in the overnights at 8 p.m. But freshman lead-out The Secret Circle dipped to a 1.5/ 2 at 9 p.m., which is similar to what Nikita was performing at last season.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights