Ratings News - 15th September 2011 - *Updated with Full Table*

Metered Market Ratings Results – Wednesday 9/14/11
NBC Wins; Mixed Results for NBC Sitcom Previews; CW Disappoints

Wednesday 9/14/11

Household
Rating/Share
NBC 8.2/13
CBS 5.7/ 9
ABC 3.4/ 6
Fox 2.1/ 3
CW 1.5/ 2

-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday 9/15/10):
ABC: _21, CBS: + 4, NBC: -12, CW: -29, Fox: -40

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-Winners:
America’s Got Talent (NBC), Survivor: South Pacific (CBS), Up All Night (NBC)

-Successful Summer Season:
Big Brother (CBS)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
H8R (CW), Buried Treasure (Fox), America’s Next Top Model (CW), Free Agents (NBC), Primetime: Nightline – Celebrity Secrets (ABC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Led by the season-finale of America’s Got Talent, NBC dominated this final Wednesday of the 2010-11 season, with a hefty 44 percent advantage over second-place CBS. In the distant No. 3 spot was ABC, followed by Fox and The CW, which was off but not necessarily running with its combination of H8R and the new season of America’s Next Top Model.

America’s Got Talent concluded another successful summer season with a solid 9.3 rating/15 share in the overnights from 8-10 p.m., building by half-hour as follows:

America’s Got Talent (NBC)
8:00 p.m.: 8.2/14 (#1)
8:30 p.m.: 8.8/14 (#1)
9:00 p.m.: 9.7/15 (#1)
9:30 p.m.: 10.6/17 (#1)

Compared to the year-ago season ender (10.4/16 on 9/15/10), America’s Got Talent dipped by 11 percent. NBC utilized the 10 p.m. hour to preview upcoming Wednesday 8-9 p.m. sitcoms Up All Night and Free Agents. Up All Night led the 10 p.m. half-hour with a 7.5/12, which maintained 71 percent of the 9:30 p.m. portion of America’s Got Talent. Consider that a positive. But Free Agents at 10:30 p.m. slipped to second with a 4.5/ 8 at 10:30 p.m., which dipped by 40 percent from Up All Night. Consider that a definite negative. Regardless, there is no reason to believe either comedy will generate much interest in the Wednesday 8 p.m. next week opposite debuting The X Factor on Fox, Survivor on CBS, and two episodes of sitcom The Middle on ABC.

In other series-premiere news, non-scripted H8R on The CW was left at the starting gate with a distant last-place 1.2/ 2 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Compared to America’s Got Talent in the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour one year earlier (2.4/ 4 on 9/15/10), this was a loss of a hefty 50 percent. The all-star of America’s Next Top Model, meanwhile, opened with a diluted and last-place 1.8/ 3 at 9 p.m. While growth of 64 percent out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of H8R (1.1/ 2) is a positive worth noting, erosion from the aforementioned year-ago overnight delivery was significant at 25 percent. It is time for Top Model to take a rest.

In other season-premiere news, Survivor: South Pacific on CBS was amply sampled at a second-place 6.6/11 from 8-9:30 p.m. Compared to the launch of Survivor: Nicaragua one year earlier (7.1/12 on 9/15/10), this was down by only seven percent. Stalwart Survivor lives on. Survivor led into the 90-minute season-finale of summer favorite Big Brother, which scored a 4.8/ 8 from 9:30-11 p.m.. Comparably, that was right on par with the two-hour season ender one year earlier. Here is the half-hour breakdown for both Survivor and Big Brother:

CBS/Wednesday
8:00 p.m. – Survivor: South Pacific: 6.5/11 (#2)
8:30 p.m. – Survivor: South Pacific: 6.6/11 (#2)
9:00 p.m. – Survivor: South Pacific: 6.7/11 (#2)
9:30 p.m. – Big Brother: 5.0/ 8 (#2)
10:00 p.m. – Big Brother: 4.8/ 8 (#2)
10:30 p.m. – Big Brother: 4.7/ 8 (#1)

Thank you Shelly for choosing the right person to win this season.

Over at Fox, the season (or series ender) of summer reality/competition Buried Treasure was buried at a distant fourth-place 2.1/ 4 in the overnights at 8 p.m. That led into a repeat Buried Treasure at a 2.1/ 3 at 9 p.m. Original or repeat – did not matter with bland Buried Treasure.

ABC populated the evening with two repeat episodes each of The Middle (#3: avg. 3.1/ 5 from 8-9 p.m.) and Modern Family #3: avg. 3.7/ 6 from 9-10 p.m.), and newsmagazine Primetime: Nightline – Celebrity Secrets (#3: 3.3/ 5 at 10 p.m.).

Next Wednesday will feature the series-premieres of ABC’s Revenge and Fox’s The X Factor; the time period premieres of NBC sitcoms Up All Night and Free Agents; and the season premieres of The Middle and Modern Family (two episodes each) on ABC; Criminal Minds and relocated CSI on CBS; and relocated Harry’s Law and Law & Order: SVU on NBC.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights