Ratings News - 23rd March 2012 *Full Tables Added*

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Metered Market Thursday Ratings
Strong Return for Touch on Fox; Missing on ABC Losses Steam

Thursday 3/22/12
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
Fox 9.1/15
CBS 4.6/ 8
ABC 4.1/ 7
NBC 3.0/ 5
CW 1.8/ 3

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 3/24/11
CW: +80, NBC: - 6, Fox: - 9, CBS: -13, ABC: -35

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-Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Touch (Fox)

Respectable:
Missing (ABC), Awake (NBC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
Community (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), Up All Night (NBC), The Secret Circle (CW)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
It was no contest on this second consecutive Big Bang Theory-less Thursday, with dominant Fox outdelivering the Eye net by 4.5 overnight rating points. Next was ABC, which was in repeats from 9-11 p.m., followed by NBC and, of course, The CW.

Drama Touch on Fox returned to the schedule for its second episode with a dominant 7.7 rating/13 share in the overnights at 9 p.m. Comparably, that built from an encore telecast of year-ago occupant Bones (5.7/ 9 on 3/24/11) by 35 percent; and retention out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of lead-in American Idol (11.4/18) was 68 percent. Keep in mind, of course, that Grey’s Anatomy on ABC was an encore telecast and Person of Interest on CBS was pre-empted for basketball.

Overall, American Idol won the 8 p.m. hour and finished first overall for the evening with a 10.7/17 in the overnights. Compared to the year-ago evening (14.6/23 on 3/24/11), however, this was a loss of 27 percent.

In week two news (and minus competing The Big Bang Theory on CBS), ABC drama Missing finished second with a respectable 6.3/10 from 8-9 p.m. Comparatively, this dipped by 19 percent from its week-ago series-opener (7.8/13 on March 15). One year earlier, Wipeout averaged a 4.3/ 7 in the time period.

Next on ABC was a repeat of aforementioned Grey’s Anatomy (#3: 3.3/ 6 at 9 p.m.), followed by an encore of spin-off Private Practice at a third-place 2.6/ 5 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 CBS, the ongoing NCAA Basketball Tournament scored an estimated 4.6/ 8 in the overnights for the primetime (8-11 p.m.) portion, which was 13 percent below the year-ago evening (5.3/ 9 on 3/24/11). Results for any live sporting event are always approximate, of course.

Elsewhere, NBC’s Thursday 8-10 p.m. sitcom block just does not resonate in the overnights with a fourth-place finish in each of the four half-hours. Community opened with a 2.9/ 5 at 8 p.m. (down six percent from the year-ago evening), followed by two episodes of 30 Rock (8:30 p.m.: 2.6/ 4; 9 p.m.: 2.7/ 4) and Up All Night (2.5/ 4). While a 3.1/ 5 for Community last week did translate into a 2.2 rating among adults 18-49, based on the metered markets this has to be classified as a “loser.”

Better news for NBC was recent drama entry Awake, which rose to a second-place 3.7/ 7 at 10 p.m. (48 percent above Up All Night). But keep in mind, of course, that regularly scheduled The Mentalist on CBS was pre-empted for basketball and Private Practice on ABC was a repeat.

Over at The CW, the network’s highest-rated show, The Vampire Diaries, remained just that with a 2.2/ 3 (#5) at 8 p.m. But lead-out The Secret Circle, which is not worthy of a second season, dropped to a 1.5/ 2 at 9 p.m. (#5). Comparably, retention for The Secret Circle out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of The Vampire Diaries (2.1/ 3) was 71 percent.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights