Rating News - 21st January 2011

hursday 1/20/11
Note: The overnight data now includes DVR playback until 3 a.m. local time. One year earlier it was based on Live data only.

HH
Rtg/Shr
Fox 10.7/16
CBS 8.7/13
NBC 3.7/ 6
ABC 3.6/ 6
CW 0.9/ 1

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-Note: The year-to-year overnight comparisons are not available today.

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), The Big Bang Theory (CBS), CSI (CBS), The Mentalist (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Community (NBC), Perfect Couples (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), Outsourced (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
American Idol is alive and still very well on Fox, with the 8-9 p.m. Thursday telecast at a 14.4 rating/22 share in the overnights. While this was more than enough to lift Fox to Thursday victory, one day earlier season 10 of the veteran music competition opened with a 16.4/24. And relocated Bones at 9 p.m. (#2: 7.0/11) held only 45 percent of the 8:30 p.m. portion of Idol (15.5/23). But, let’s be honest, this is still a total standout.

Despite facing American Idol, CBS’ The Big Bang Theory was on the map with a 9.5/14 in the overnights at 8 p.m. But lead-out $#*! My Dad Says slipped to a 6.6/10 (#2) at 8:30 p.m., 31 percent below Big Bang. As a reminder, Rules of Engagement relocates into the Thursday 8:30 p.m. half-hour on Feb. 24. CBS moved into the overnight winner’s circle at 9 p.m. care of veteran CSI (#1: 8.7/13), and stayed there at 10 p.m. with The Mentalist (#1: 9.5/16). But The Office on NBC will have an advantage opposite CSI.

NBC kicked-off its three-hour sitcom block and, excluding aforementioned The Office, the results were abysmal. Take a look:

NBC/Thursday
8:00 p.m. – Community: 3.2/ 5 (#4)
8:30 p.m. – Perfect Couples (series premiere / time period premiere): 2.9/ 4 (#4)
9:00 p.m. – The Office: 5.3/ 8 (#3)
9:30 p.m. – Parks and Recreation (season premiere): 3.8/ 6 (#3)
10:00 p.m. – 30 Rock (time period premiere): 3.7/ 6 (#2)
10:30 p.m. – Outsourced (time period premiere): 3.0/ 5 (#2)

Keep in mind that the second-place time period finishes for 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation is a result of ABC’s Private Practice being a repeat (#3: 2.7/ 4). The biggest clinker on NBC last night: Perfect Couples, which could not even maintain the lackluster Community lead-in despite the higher HUT levels at 8:30 p.m. While Parks and Recreation will be up year-to-year by now airing out of The Office (as opposed to out of Community last season), the 72 percent overnight retention from The Office could, and should, be better.

Over at ABC, Wipeout took a hit opposite American Idol, with a third-place 4.6/ 7 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Last week it averaged a 6.2/10 on January 13. The rest of the evening on ABC -- Grey’s Anatomy (#4: 3.6/ 5) and aforementioned Private Practice (#3: 2.7/ 5) -- was in repeats. The CW’s combination of The Vampire Diaries (#5: 0.9/ 1) and Nikita (#5: 0.9/ 1) were also encore telecasts. It’s depressing, isn’t it, to see repeats in January?

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback