Ratings News - 2nd March 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Tuesday Ratings:
Idol Leads Fox to Victory, ABC Gets a Boost from Ongoing Charlie Sheen Drama

Tuesday 3/01/11
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 11.7/18
CBS 10.0/16
ABC 4.4/ 7
NBC 4.3/ 7
CW 1.2/ 2

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-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Tuesday, 3/02/10):
CW: +140, CBS: +10, ABC: - 4, Fox: -21, NBC: -23

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), NCIS (CBS), NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS), The Good Wife (CBS), 20/20 (ABC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
No Ordinary Family (ABC), One Tree Hill (CW), V (ABC), Raising Hope (Fox), Hellcats (CW), Parenthood (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Fox won Tuesday, of course, on the strength of a 90-minute edition of American Idol, which averaged a 13.7 rating/21 share in the overnights from 8-9:30 p.m. Normally dominant CBS had to settle for the No. 2 spot, followed by distant ABC, NBC and The CW. American Idol, featuring the semi-finals, will air tonight and tomorrow as well.

Fortunately for Fox, American Idol has been holding up in the ratings with new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler (the year-ago telecast scored a 14.8/22 on March 2, 2010). But Simon Cowell was sorely missed last night. Minus a true voice not afraid to call it like it is, Idol felt very shallow.

While a 9:30 p.m. edition of Fox’s Malcolm in the Middle-like Raising Hope did get a ratings’ boost, the second-place 5.7/ 9 at 9:30 p.m. was a hefty 60 percent below the 9 p.m. portion of American Idol (14.3/21). Too bad more people have not discovered this true gem.

Despite facing Idol, CBS was clearly on the map care of NCIS (#2: 12.1/18), spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles (#2: 9.8/15) and older-skewing The Good Wife (#1: 8.1/13). The Good Wife, however, is not expected to win the 10 p.m. hour among adults 18-49.

ABC limped out of the Tuesday gate as usual with waiting-to-be axed No Ordinary Family (#4: 3.1/ 5) and stayed in the doldrums at 9 p.m. with sophomore V (#4: 3.5/ 6). But a special edition of 20/20 featuring…guess who?...Charlie Sheen, rose to a second-place 6.6/11 at 10 p.m., which was a considerable improvement over regularly scheduled occupant Detroit 1-8-7. Comparably, that built from the 9:30 p.m. portion of V (3.7/ 6) by 78 percent. As I am sitting here writing this analysis, there is Charlie discussing his latest issue on NBC’s The Today Show. How plain pathetic is all this?

Elsewhere, NBC’s The Biggest Loser lost steam opposite American Idol, with a 4.6/ 7 from 8-10 p.m. That led into on-the-fence sophomore drama Parenthood at a last-place 3.7/ 6 in the overnights at 10 p.m. But the adult 18-49 variation between Parenthood and CBS’ The Good Wife will be much smaller.

Last, and very least, was The CW’s combination of One Tree Hill (#5: 1.3/ 2) and Hellcats (#5: 1.1/ 2).

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback