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

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Metered Market Tuesday Ratings
Solid Season Ending Victory for CBS

Tuesday 5/15/12

Household
Rating/Share
CBS 10.2/16
ABC 6.0/10
NBC 5.6/ 9
Fox 4.6/ 7
CW 0.8/ 1

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Tuesday 5/17/11
NBC: +10, CBS: no change, Fox: - 4, CW: -27, ABC: -39

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-Winners:
NCIS (CBS), America’s Got Talent (NBC), Dancing With the Stars (ABC), NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
Cougar Town (ABC), 90210 (CW), The L.A. Complex (CW), Fashion Star (NBC)

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-Rating Results:
A night of season-finales put dominant CBS well above the competition, with a hefty 70 percent overnight advantage over second-place ABC. Third was NBC, followed by two-hours of Glee on Fox and distant The CW.

NCIS closed its ninth season as the top-rated show of the evening, as usual, with an 11.9 rating/19 share in the overnights at 8 p.m. Year-to-year, that was up by three percent. Next was the two-hour NCIS: Los Angeles season-ender at a 9.4/15 from 9-11 p.m., which finished first in three of its four half-hours as follows:

NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)
9:00 p.m.: 9.5/15 (#1)
9:30 p.m.: 9.4/14 (#2)
10:00 p.m.: 9.5/16 (#1)
10:30 p.m.: 9.2/16 (#1)

Two episodes of Cougar Town on ABC did not resonate in the 8 p.m. hour, with an average fourth-place 2.7/ 4. But with a strong cult following, TBS was very wise to pick-up the Bill Lawrence sitcom for 15 new episodes in 2013.

Next on the alphabet net was the departure of Maria Menounos on Dancing With the Stars at a dominant 9.9/15 from 9-10 p.m., followed by Private Practice, which concludes next season, at a second-place 5.6/10 at 10 p.m.

On NBC, two-hours of America’s Got Talent led the network to its best performance in the Tuesday 8-10 p.m. block all season with a 6.7/11 from 8-10 p.m. Comparably, AGT built from a two-hour edition of The Biggest Loser on the year-ago evening (4.6/ 7 on 5/17/11) by a considerable 46 percent. Here is the half-hour breakdown:

America’s Got Talent (NBC)
8:00 p.m.: 6.4/11 (#2)
8:30 p.m.: 7.2/11 (#2)
9:00 p.m.: 6.8/10 (#3)
9:30 p.m.: 6.6/10 (#3)

Next on NBC was the season-finale of Fashion Star at an uneventful third-place 3.2/ 6 at 10 p.m. (which was 48 percent below The Voice on the year-ago evening). Fashion Star will return in January 2013 in the Sunday 8 p.m. hour (out of Dateline and into a one-hour edition of The Celebrity Apprentice).

Elsewhere, two aforementioned hours of Glee on Fox finished fourth overall with a 4.6/ 7 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. Comparably, that was down by 31 percent from a one-hour edition on 5/17/11 (6.7/10 at 8 p.m.). On The CW, the season-finale of 90210 was barely visible at a 1.0/ 2 at 8 p.m. But considerably worse was Canadian drama The L.A. Complex at a 0.5/ 1 at 9 p.m.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights