Ratings News - 10th February 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:
Fox Wins; Solid Sampling for Mr. Sunshine on ABC

Wednesday 2/09/11
Note: The following 11 West Coast markets are not included in last night’s averages: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.

HH
Rtg/Shr
Fox 10.9/16
CBS 5.9/ 9
NBC 4.9/ 8
ABC 4.5/ 7
CW 0.8/ 1

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-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday, 2/10/10):
NBC: +22, Fox: + 3, ABC: - 6, CW: -11, CBS: -22

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Modern Family (ABC), Mr. Sunshine (ABC), Criminal Minds (CBS), Blue Bloods (CBS)

-Honorable Mention:
The Middle (ABC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Live to Dance (CBS), Minute to Win It (NBC), Human Target (Fox), Off the Map (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by American Idol, Fox scored another overnight Wednesday victory with a 3.4 rating point advantage over second-place CBS. Third overall was ABC, followed by NBC and The CW.

In series-premiere news, ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine, headlined by former Friends star Matthew Perry, was sampled with a second-place 7.7 rating/11 share in the overnights at 9:30 p.m. Comparably, retention out of demo friendly Modern Family (#1: 9.4/14 at 9 p.m.) was a respectable 82 percent. And this was a vast improvement over former time period occupant Cougar Town. Compared to the last original episode of Cougar Town out of an original installment of Modern Family (Modern Family: 8.0/12, Cougar Town: 4.2/ 6 on Jan. 19), this was a rise of a significant 83 percent. Let’s wait and see what happens next week.

Despite the improved lead-in support, recent ABC drama entry Off the Map finished third at 10 p.m. with a 4.1/ 7 in the overnights. Earlier in the evening on ABC was underrated The Middle (#2: 6.1/ 9 at 8 p.m.), which stands up well opposite American Idol, and freshman entry Better with You (#2: 4.5/ 7 at 8:30 p.m.), which dipped by a noticeable 26 percent.

Over at dominant Fox, warhorse American Idol remained just that, with a 15.3/23 in the overnights from 8-9 p.m. Look for the first round of auditions in Hollywood tonight. Despite the hefty lead-in support, the season (or series) finale of sophomore Human Target dipped to third, with a 5.7/ 9 at 9 p.m. Comparably, that put retention out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of American Idol (16.3/24) of just 35 percent. With that in mind, my guess is we will not be seeing a third season of Human Target.

In other season (or series) finale news, Live to Dance on CBS exited with a whimper at a third-place 3.6/ 5 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Paula Abdul, no doubt, would be a much better fit opposite Simon Cowell on upcoming Fox reality/competition The X-Factor next fall.

Next on CBS was the always reliable Criminal Minds (#1: 9.4/14 at 9 p.m.), followed by the conclusion of the four-week time period test for Blue Bloods (#1: 8.3/13 at 10 p.m.). Look for the Wednesday 10 p.m. time period debut of CBS’ Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior next week. And mark your calendars for the return of Blue Bloods into the Friday 10 p.m. hour tomorrow (with a repeat installment).

Elsewhere, NBC populated this first Wednesday of the February sweeps with two episodes of game show Minute to Win It and Law & Order: SVU as follows:

NBC/Wednesday
8:00 p.m. – Minute to Win It: 3.3/ 5 (#4)
9:00 p.m. – Minute to Win It: 4.4/ 7 (#4)
10:00 p.m. – Law & Order: SVU: 5.8/ 9 (#2)

And The CW aired repeats of Nikita (#5: 1.2/ 2) and The Vampire Diaries (#5: 0.7/ 1).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback