Ratings News - 24th March 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:
Idol Lifts Fox to a Massive Victory

Wednesday 3/23/11
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 15.7/24
CBS 5.8/ 9
ABC 4.6/ 7
NBC 3.8/ 6
CW 1.4/ 2

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-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday 3/24/10):
Fox: +69, ABC: - 2, CBS: - 3, CW: -22, NBC: -27

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Modern Family (ABC)

-Honorable Mention:
Survivor: Redemption Island (CBS), Law & Order: SVU (NBC)

-Fading Fast:
America’s Next Top Model (CW)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Minute to Win It (NBC), Shedding for the Wedding (CW), Mr. Sunshine (ABC), Off the Map (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Fox was the dominant player of course, with another two-hour edition of American Idol beating the four competing networks combined. Idol averaged a whopping 15.7 rating/24 share in the overnights from 8-10 p.m., building by half-hour as follows:

American Idol (Fox)
8:00 p.m.: 14.2/23 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 15.7/24 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 16.2/24 (#1)
9:30 p.m.: 16.7/25 (#1)

My picks for the bottom three tonight: Haley Reinhart, Naima Adedapo and Thia Megia. Most likely to bid adieu: Haley Reinhart.

Second-place CBS featured still potent Survivor: Redemption Island (#2: 6.6/10), which proves that two successful shows can co-exist in one time period, a repeat of Criminal Minds (#3: 5.1/ 8), and spin-off Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (#2: 5.8/10). While Suspect Behavior did build from its parent series, solid CBS can do better in this time period next season. My personal choice would be to put Blue Bloods back in the hour.

ABC opened the evening with an original installment of underrated The Middle (#3: 5.1/ 8), followed by a repeat of The Middle (#3: 4.0/ 6) and the original 9-11 p.m. rotation of stand-out Modern Family (#2: 7.6/11), on-the-fence recent entry Mr. Sunshine (#3: 4.2/. 6), which is no better than soon-to-return Cougar Town, and struggling drama Off the Map (#3: 3.4/ 6). Comparably, retention for Mr. Sunshine out of Modern Family was only 55 percent.

Elsewhere, NBC game show Minute to Win It scored a miniscule fourth-place 2.4/ 4 in the overnights at 8 p.m., followed by a repeat of Law & Order: SVU (#4: 2.9/ 5) and an original installment of SVU, which finished first at 10 p.m. with a 6.3/11. One year earlier, Law & Order: SVU averaged a 7.3/13 on March 24, 2010 (opposite a repeat of CSI: NY on CBS).

Over at The CW, veteran America’s Next Top Model continues to bleed with a fourth-place 2.0/ 3 at 8 p.m. Comparably, that dipped by 29 percent from the 2.8/ 5 it scored in the overnights on the comparable year-ago evening. Next on The CW was flop Shedding for the Wedding at a very last-place 0.8/ 1 at 9 p.m.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback