Ratings News - 10th May 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Monday Ratings:
Heft Victory for ABC; CBS Loses Momentum

Monday 5/09/11
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
ABC 12.5/19
CBS 5.1/ 8
Fox 4.6/ 7
NBC 3.1/ 5
CW 1.3/ 2

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-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Monday 5/10/10):
ABC: + 5, NBC: -16, CW: -19, Fox: -29, CBS: -30

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
Dancing with the Stars (ABC), Castle (ABC)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Chuck (NBC), Mad Love (CBS), 90210 (CW), The Event (NBC), Gossip Girl (CW), Law & Order: Los Angeles (NBC)

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Note: The fast affiliate results for Monday will be posted at PIFeedback by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Monday, May 9, 2011.

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-Ratings Breakdown:
ABC remains the dominant force on Monday thanks to Dancing with the Stars, with a whopping 145 percent advantage over No. 2 CBS. Third overall was Fox, followed by NBC and, of course, The CW. While ABC managed to build year-to-year by five percent, the four remaining networks slipped by double digit percentages.

Dancing with the Stars stood well above the competition, with a 14.3 rating/22 share from 8-10 p.m. and the half-hour breakdown as follows: 13.0/21 – 14.2/22 – 15.1/23 – 14.9/22. Looks like “Karate Kid” Ralph Macchio could be heading home tonight. Dancing with the Stars led into mystery Castle at a dominant 8.8/15 at 10 p.m. Comparably, however, retention for Castle out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of Dancing with the Stars was only 59 percent.

CBS, unfortunately, remains stifled by the absence of original episodes of Two and a Half Men. Demo friendly How I Met Your Mother opened with a third-place 4.7/ 7 at 8 p.m., leading into recent entry Mad Love at a 3.6/ 6 (#3) at 8:30 p.m. Retention for Mad Love out of How I Met Your Mother of only 77 percent in the higher HUT level 8:30 p.m. time period means Mad Love is a goner.

Next on CBS was the Two and a Half Men encore (#2: 4.5/ 7 at 9 p.m.), which dipped by 49 percent from the original year-ago telecast (8.9/13 on May 10, 2010), followed by sure-to-be renewed Mike & Molly (#2: 5.2/ 8) and Hawaii Five-O (#2: 6.3/10) from 9:30-11 p.m. Minus the original lead-in support, both freshman entries have felt the impact.

Fox had nothing unusual to report with its combination of deteriorating House (#2: 5.2/ 8 at 8 p.m.), which slipped 22 percent year-to-year (6.7/10 on May 10, 2010) and on-the-fence The Chicago Code (#3: 3.9/ 6 at 9 p.m.), which faces an uphill battle for renewal because of commitments to The X Factor and dinosaur drama Terra Nova from Steven Spielberg.

Elsewhere, NBC remained out of the competitive loop as a result of Chuck (#4L 2.8/ 5), The Event (#4: 2.8/ 4) and Law & Order: Los Angeles (#3: 3.6/ 6), while The CW lagged with its combination of already renewed 90210 (#5: 1.4/ 2) and Gossip Girl (#5: 1.2/ 2). Both CW dramas never resonate in the overnights. Next season, Gossip Girl regulars Taylor Momsen (Jenny) and Jessica Szohr (Vanessa) are only expected to appear on an occasional basis.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: pifeedback