Ratings News - 4th May 2011

Prime-Time Metered Market Tuesday Ratings:
CBS Wins; Weekly Gains for NBC Hit The Voice

Tuesday 5/03/11
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
CBS 9.5/15
ABC 8.8/14
NBC 7.1/11
Fox 4.5/ 7
CW 0.9/ 1

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-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Tuesday 5/04/10):
Note: American Idol aired on Fox on the year-ago evening.
NBC: +39, ABC: +33, CBS and CW: no change each, Fox: -56

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-Yesterday’s Winners:
NCIS (CBS), Glee (Fox), NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS), The Voice (NBC), The Good Wife (CBS)

-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
One Tree Hill (CW), Raising Hope (Fox), Traffic Light (Fox), Hellcats (CW)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
CBS led this first Tuesday in May in the overnights on the strength of NCIS (#1: 11.2 rating/17 share), spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles (#2: 8.8/13) and critically-acclaimed The Good Wife (#1: 8.6/14), which is expected to rack up a slew of additional Emmy nominations for its sophomore season. Second-place ABC got a major boost, of course, from the live Dancing With the Stars Results Show, which finished as the top-rated show of the evening with an 11.8/18 at 9 p.m. But third-place NBC also has plenty to crow about courtesy of week two of singing competition The Voice, which perked up to an 8.1/12 from 9-11 p.m. Comparably, that built by eight percent from its stellar debut one week earlier (7.5/12 on April 26, which translated into 11.78 million viewers and a 5.1/13 among adults 18-49). Here is the half-hour breakdown:

The Voice (NBC)
9:00 p.m.: 7.7/11 (#3)
9:30 p.m.: 8.4/12 (#3)
10:00 p.m.: 8.3/13 (#2)
10:30 p.m.: 8.1/13 (#1)

Comparably, The Voice built from a one-hour version of lead-in The Biggest Loser (#4: 5.1/ 8 at 8 p.m.) by a hefty 59 percent. And versus the recent February 2011 time period average (4.6/ 7) this is an increase of 76 percent. How do you like that? NBC has a bona fide hit!

Moving back to ABC, an 8 p.m. recap telecast of Dancing With the Stars, which is now scheduled in the time period for the remainder of the season (see TV Tidbits below), finished a very respectable second with a 7.1/11 in the overnights. Leading out of the aforementioned 11.8/18 for Dancing With the Stars at 9 p.m. was recent crime-solving entry Body of Proof at a third-place 7.4/12 at 10 p.m. While that looks positive on paper, retention out of the 9:30 p.m. portion of Dancing With the Stars (12.3/18) lacked at just 60 percent. Regardless, you can expect to see Body of Proof on ABC’s line-up next fall.

Over at Fox, young adult magnet Glee finished third in the overnights at 8 p.m., with a 6.5/10. Comparably, that should be enough to warrant a time period win among key adults 18-49 (not to mention adults 18-34, of course). But critically acclaimed sitcom Raising Hope, a Mr. TV favorite, continues to squander the lead-in support with a fourth-place 3.2/ 5 in the 9 p.m. half-hour (and retention of only 49 percent out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of Glee – 6.5/10). Significantly worse was Traffic Light at a fourth-place 2.0/ 3 at 9:30 p.m. Note to the cast and crew on Traffic Light: avoid anything pink-colored in the mail.

Capping off the evening was The CW’s lackluster combination of veteran One Tree Hill (#5: 1.1/ 2), which should be calling it quits, and freshman Hellcats (#5: 0.8/ 1), which has collapsed at a time when it really needs the audience support. As a reminder, we are now in the May sweeps.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat)

Source: pifeedback