Ratings News - 28th January 2011

Thursday 1/27/11
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 11.0/17
CBS 6.4/10
NBC 3.5/ 5
ABC 3.4/ 5
CW 2.1/ 3

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Thursday, January 28, 2010):
Fox: +59, CBS: +19, NBC: +13, CW: -12, ABC: -13

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), The Office (NBC)

-Honorable Mention:
The Big Bang Theory R (CBS)

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

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-Ratings Breakdown:
With 83 percent of CBS’ line-up in repeats, American Idol-ignited Fox scored a stellar overnight Thursday victory, with a 4.6 rating point advantage over the second-place Eye net. In the distant No. 3 spot was NBC, which is solely dependent on adults 18-49, followed by ABC and The CW.

American Idol stood well above the competition, with a 14.2 rating/21 share in the 8 p.m. hour. Comparably, that bested year-ago occupant Bones (7.9/13 on Jan. 28, 2010) by 80 percent (and its advantage among adults 18-49 is expected to be greater). Relocated Bones followed American Idol with a dominant 7.9/12 in the 9 p.m. hour, but competing CSI on CBS (#2: 6.3/10) and Grey’s Anatomy on ABC (#4: 3.3/ 5) were both in repeats. Retention for Bones out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of Idol (15.0/22), meanwhile, was only 53 percent.

CBS opened the evening with a repeat of The Big Bang Theory (#2: 6.1/10 at 8 p.m.), followed by an original installment of $#*! My Dad Says (#2: 5.7/ 9 at 8:30 p.m.), which is better creatively thanks to the arrival of Jean Smart, and repeats of CSI (#2: 6.3/10) and The Mentalist (#1: 7.0/12) from 9-11 p.m. The Big Bang Theory’s still respectable performance in an encore telecast only proves its upcoming value in off-network syndication next fall. And thanks to Jet Blue, I was able to revisit it again last night en route back from NATPE.

As a reminder, CBS’ Rules of Engagement moves into the Thursday 8:30 p.m. half-hour on Feb. 24.

The standout on NBC last night, as always, was The Office with a third-place 5.1/ 8 in the overnights at 9 p.m. Comparably, that built from lead-in Perfect Couples (#4: 2.5/ 4 at 8:30 p.m.) by 104 percent, and it is poised for time period victory among adults 18-49. The cameo by Ricky Gervais, by the way, added nothing creatively.

Comparably, two week of NBC’s Perfect Couples on Thursday dipped by 14 percent from its already abysmal opening one week earlier (2.9/ 4 on January 20).

NBC, on the whole, performed as follows by half-hour:

Thursday/NBC
8:00 p.m. – Community: 3.3/ 5 (#4)
8:30 p.m. – Perfect Couples: 2.5/ 4 (#4)
9:00 p.m. – The Office: 5.1/ 8 (#3)
9:30 p.m. – Parks and Recreation: 3.7/ 6 (#3)
10:00 p.m. – 30 Rock: 3.5/ 6 (#2)
10:30 p.m. – Outsourced: 3.0/ 5 (#2)

While this does not look all that impressive, two more points to note are:

-Parks and Recreation is up year-to-year thanks to the stronger lead-in support from The Office (than former occupant Community).
-30 Rock scored a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49 last week with a similar overnight average. That said, it should not have been labeled a “loser” last week.

NBC’s troubled Thursday spots at present are the 8-9 p.m. hour and 10:30 p.m.

Over at ABC, Wipeout opened the evening with a third-place 4.4/ 7 in the 8 p.m. hour, followed by the aforementioned encore telecast of Grey’s Anatomy (#4: 3.3/ 5) and a repeat of spin-off Private Practice (#3: 2.7/ 4) from 9-11 p.m. And The CW was on the map on its strongest night of the week care of original installments of The Vampire Diaries (#5: 2.4/ 4) and freshman drama Nikita (#5: 1.9/ 3).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback