Ratings News - 29th March 2013 (Full Tables Posted)

Today's Early Overnight Ratings

This table shows the early overnight ratings. These ratings are normally adjusted later in the day when all the ratings have been consolidated to take into account any local preemptions and/or overruns. You can find all the final adjusted numbers in our Ratings Database. (See the About section below for details about ratings)

Early Ratings Analysis

The analysis below is based on the early household numbers and are NOT the same as the numbers that will be posted in the above table later. (See the About section below)

For more information on the Nielsen Ratings see this Wikipedia Entry.

NOTE: The opinions expressed here are NOT those of SpoilerTV but of the Author of this Article, Marc Berman.

Metered Market Thursday Ratings
More Rapid Erosion for “American Idol” on Fox

Thursday 3/28/13
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
ABC 5.3/ 9
Fox 5.3/ 9
CBS 4.6/ 8
NBC 2.0/ 3
CW 1.6/ 3

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-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 3/30/12:
ABC: +47, CW: - 6, NBC: -13, Fox: -36, CBS: -46

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-Winners:
“Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), “Scandal” (ABC)

-Falling Fast:
“American Idol” (Fox)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
“Wife Swap” (ABC), “1600 Penn” (NBC), “Raising Hope” (Fox), “Beauty and the Beast” (CW)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
ABC and Fox tied for first in the overnights on this atypical Thursday (translation: basketball), but sliding “American Idol” resulted in a year-to-year nightly loss of 36 percent. The live “Idol” Results Show won the 8 p.m. hour, with a 7.8 rating/14 share (and dominance is always positive, no doubt). But compared to the 10.8/17 on the year-ago evening, this was down by 28 percent. Keep in mind that “American Idol” did not face “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS last night.

Two episodes of worthy lead-out “Raising Hope,” including the season finale, followed with a 3.3/ 5 at 9 p.m. and a 2.5/ 4 at 9:30 p.m., which finished fourth in both half-hours. If quality were the benchmark, “Raising Hope” would be firmly entrenched as a “winner.” The two episodes last night were classic. But only 41 percent retention for the 9 p.m. edition out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of “American Idol” (8.1/14) is just not positive for the already renewed sitcom.

Over at ABC, recent returnee “Wife Swap” did not impress with a distant third-place 3.2/ 5 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Comparably, that was 44 percent below older-skewing year-ago occupant “Missing” (5.7/ 9 on 3/29/12).

Next on the alphabet net was veteran “Grey’s Anatomy,” which perked up to a first-place 6.8/11 from 9-10 p.m., followed by compatible sophomore “Scandal” at an also dominant 6.0/10 at 10 p.m.

The ongoing 2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament placed CBS in the overall No. 3 position for the night, with an estimated 4.6/ 8 in the overnights from 8-11 p.m. Remember, results for any live sporting event are always approximate.

Elsewhere, “The Vampire Diaries” remains an option for The CW, with a consistent 2.0/ 3 in the overnights at 8 p.m. (#5). But lead-out “Beauty and the Beast,” which is not compatible demographically, slipped to a 1.3/ 2 at 9 p.m. – down by 35 percent. And that was only equal to failed year-ago occupant “The Secret Circle.”

In season (or series) finale news, freshman NBC comedy “1600 Penn” exited with a mere 1.6/ 3 (#4) at 9:30 p.m. (out of a 1.5/ 3 for an encore of soon-to-conclude “The Office” at 9 p.m.). Earlier in the evening was a repeat of “Community,” which needs to finally end, at a 1.7/ 3 at 8 p.m. (#4), followed by another episode of “1600 Penn” at a 1.5/ 3 at 8:30 p.m. Needless to say, NBC must revamp its Thursday sitcom block next season. Enough with these limited appeal single camera comedies.

At 10 p.m., an encore of “Law & Order: SVU” closed the night for NBC with a distant third-place 2.8/ 5.

Since basketball on CBS bled into late night, the overnight results in the daypart are excluded today.

Source: Nielsen Media Research

Source: Marc Berman@tvmediainsights

About the Daily Ratings

Each day (except Sunday) we post the TV Ratings for the previous night.

The first item that gets posted (normally around 2pm GMT) is the early overnight analysis based on the early household numbers (these are not the same as the Total Viewers and 18-49 Demo numbers that are posted later).

Later on (normally between 4pm-5pm GMT) we post the official early overnight Total Viewers and 18-49 Demo numbers in the table above.

Finally, later in the evening (10pm-11pm GMT) or the following day, the final adjusted ratings numbers are released, these are then posted in the Ratings Database. The Final Adjusted numbers are what we use for all our Renew/Cancellation Tables, Full Season Tables, Ratings Scorecards etc (see below)

Additional Ratings Resources

If you’re interested in Ratings/Renewal/Cancellations then we have a number of resources here at SpoilerTV that we recommend you check out.

Renew/Cancel

Our Cancellation/Renewal predictions for the current season.

Ratings Database

Historical Ratings Database for nearly all major US shows going back to their first episodes.

Full Season Tables

The current season full ratings tables for both Total Viewers and 18-49 Demos

Ratings Scorecard

See how all the shows stack up against each other in the Ratings Scorecard Table.