Ratings News - 14th April 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:
Fox Wins; Mixed Results for Two-Episode Happy Endings Debut on ABC

Wednesday 4/13/11
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 12.4/19
CBS 7.1/11
ABC 4.6/ 7
NBC 2.7/ 4
CW 1.5/ 2

-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday 4/14/10):
Fox: +32, CBS: + 4, ABC: no change, CW: -12, NBC: -25

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

-Honorable Mention:
Survivor: Redemption Island (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Minute to Win It (NBC), America’s Next Top Model (CW), Better With You (ABC), Shedding for the Wedding (CW), Breaking In (Fox), Happy Endings – 10 p.m. (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
In what will remain a pattern through the end of the traditional TV season in May, American Idol-ignited Fox led the overnight midweek troops, with a hefty 5.3 rating point advantage over second-place CBS. In the distant No. 3 spot was ABC, followed by NBC and The CW.

A 90-minute edition of American Idol earned its blockbuster stripes with a 14.8 rating/23 share in the overnights from 8-9:30 p.m., building by half-hour as follows: 13.9/22 -- 15.0/23 -- 15.6/23. That led into week two of sitcom Breaking In, which dipped to third, with a 5.1/ 8 at 9:30 p.m. Comparably, that was a loss of 20 percent for Breaking Out from it’s week-ago opener (6.4/10 on April 6). And retention out of the 9 p.m. portion of American Idol was only 33 percent.

Second-place CBS kicked-off the evening with a double eviction episode of Survivor: Redemption Island at a still respectable 6.5/10 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Although I won’t say who is now sitting at Redemption Island with Matt, it may take a couple of more episodes for things to really get interesting.

Survivor led into underrated Criminal Minds at a second-place 8.5/13 at 9 p.m., followed by recently introduced spin-off Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior at a dominant 6.3/10. While victory is, of course, a positive worth noting, retention for Suspect Behavior out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of Criminal Minds (9.2/14) was lacking at 68 percent. Needless to say, CBS can do better here next season and my suggestion is to move crime solver Blue Bloods back into the hour.

In series-premiere news, a 9:30 p.m. preview edition of ABC sitcom Happy Endings got sampled with a second-place 5.3/ 8 in the overnights. And that held a respectable 75 percent of the Modern Family lead-in (#3: 7.1/11 at 9 p.m.), which will finish second in the time period among adults 18-49. But the problem was the regularly scheduled 10 p.m. edition of Happy Endings, which dipped to a distant second-place 4.1/ 7. And that led into a repeat of Modern Family at a third-place 3.3/ 6 at 10:30 p.m. As I have said all along, there is no need for any network to be running a three-hour sitcom block.

Next Wednesday, Cougar Town returns to the 9:30 p.m. half-hour, followed by Happy Endings and the Modern Family encore.

Earlier in the evening on ABC was The Middle (#3: 4.5/ 7) and on-the-fence Better With You (#3: 3.4/ 5) from 8-9 p.m., which dipped by 24 percent despite the higher HUT level at 8:30 p.m.

Over at NBC, game show Minute to Win It continues to get squashed at 8 p.m., with a fourth-place 2.3/ 4 in the overnights. Next was an unnecessary repeat of Minute to Win It (#4: 2.1/ 4 at 9 p.m.), followed by a repeat of Law & Order: SVU at a second-place 3.7/ 6 at 10 p.m.

The CW’s once reliable America’s Next Top Model has sprung a leak, with a last-place 1.9/ 3 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Comparably, that was down by 32 percent from one year earlier (2.8/ 5 on April 14, 2010). That led into the series-finale of colossal dud Shedding for the Wedding at a 1.1/ 2 (#5) at 9 p.m. Effective next Wednesday, America’s Next Top Model moves to 9 p.m., leading out of an encore telecast of the reality/competition.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data


Source: pifeedback