Ratings News - 11th March 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Thursday Ratings:
Fox Rules, CBS Solid, Everyone Else in Repeats

Thursday 3/10/11
Note: The overnight data now includes DVR playback until 3 a.m. local time. One year earlier it was based on Live data only. All times are ET/PT.

HH
Rtg/Shr
Fox 10.9/17
CBS 8.6/14
ABC 3.2/ 5
NBC 2.0/ 3
CW 0.9/ 1

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-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Thursday, March 11, 2010):
Fox: +21, CBS: - 8, CW: -18, ABC: -46, NBC: -56

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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):
Nothing….62 percent of last night’s line-up was in repeats.

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-Ratings Breakdown:
One hour of American Idol was more than enough to lead Fox to Thursday victory, with a 2.3 metered market rating point advantage over second-place CBS. In the distant No. 3 spot was ABC, followed by NBC and The CW. ABC, NBC and The CW aired all repeats last night (hence the below-average results).

The live American Idol Results Show on Fox scored a hefty 14.7 rating/23 share from 8-9 p.m., building over the comparable year-ago telecast (13.0/20 on March 11, 2010) by 13 percent. Never in the history of television has a decade-old series dominated to this degree. How do you like that, Simon Cowell? As for the first departure, Ashthon Jones was no surprise.

American Idol led into relocated Bones, which finished second behind CBS’ CSI in the overnights with a 7.1/11 at 9 p.m. But minus Grey’s Anatomy on ABC (which aired in an encore telecast as 10 p.m.), Bones has a lock for adult 18-49 time period dominance. Regardless, overnight retention for Bones out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of American Idol (15.4/24) keeps it off the listing of “winners.”

CBS was on the map with its combination of The Big Bang Theory (#2: 8.7/14), which holds up well opposite American Idol, relocated Rules of Engagement (#2: 6.5/10), veteran CSI (#1: 8.9/14) and standout The Mentalist (#1: 9.5/16). Retention for Rules of Engagement out of The Big Bang Theory was 75 percent, which is slightly above former occupant $#*! My Dad Says (which is not expected to return in 2011-12).

Everything else airing last night, once again, was an encore telecast. ABC populated the evening with two repeat hours of Wipeout (#3: 3.3/ 5 from 8-10 p.m.), followed by the aforementioned Grey’s Anatomy second-run at a second-place 2.8/ 5 at 10 p.m. NBC barely resonated with encore telecasts of Community (#4: 1.9/ 3), doomed Perfect Couples (#4: 1.7/ 3), The Office (#4: 2.5/ 4), Parks and Recreation (#4: 2.1/ 3), 30 Rock (#3: 2.0/ 3) and on-the-fence Outsourced (#3: 1.7/ 3), which has not benefited by moving to 10:30 p.m. NBC may want to rethink airing three hours of comedies next season.

Last, and very least, were repeats of The Vampire Diaries (0.9/ 1) and Nikita (0.8/ 1) on The CW.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback