Ratings News - 3rd January 2012 *Full Tables Added*

Metered Market Monday Ratings
CBS Sweeps; Positive Return for The Bachelor on ABC

Monday 1/02/12
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
CBS 7.8/12
ABC 5.1/ 8
NBC 3.0/ 5
Fox 2.2/ 3
CW 0.6/ 1

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Monday 1/03/11:
NBC: +67, CBS: no change, CW: -14, ABC: -20, Fox: -27

----------

-Winners:
How I Met Your Mother (CBS), 2 Broke Girls (CBS), Two and a Half Men (CBS), Mike & Molly (CBS), Hawaii Five-O (CBS)

-Honorable Mention:
The Bachelor (ABC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
Who’s Still Standing? (NBC), Fear Factor (NBC), Rock Center With Brian Williams (NBC)

----------

Ratings Breakdown:
CBS topped the overnight charts and will have no trouble dominating in total viewers and adults 18-49 on this first Monday in January (and this first official night of midseason). Second overall was ABC, which featured the two-hour season-premiere of The Bachelor, followed by NBC, and a night of repeats on both Fox and The CW.

CBS finished first in each of the six half-hours with its winning combination of How I Met Your Mother (6.9 rating/10 share), 2 Broke Girls (7.7/11), Two and a Half Men (9.1/13), Mike & Molly (7.8/11) and Hawaii Five-O (7.6/12), which bested the series-premiere/preview of Celebrity Wife Swap on ABC (4.4/ 7 at 10 p.m.) by a very solid 73 percent. Celebrity Wife Swap debuts tonight in its regularly scheduled Tuesday 9 p.m. time period out of the series-premiere of sitcom Work It.

Over at ABC, the return of aforementioned The Bachelor was on the charts with a 5.4/ 8 in the overnights from 8-10 p.m. and a variation of only three-tenths of a rating point in the four half-hours as follows:

The Bachelor (ABC)
8:00 p.m.: 5.4/ 8 (#2)
8:30 p.m.: 5.3/ 8 (#2)
9:00 p.m.: 5.4/ 8 (#2)
9:30 p.m.: 5.6/ 8 (#2)

One year earlier, The Bachelor opened with a 6.2/ 9 on 1/03/11 in the overnights, and that translated into 9.04 million viewers and a 2.9/ 7 among adults 18-49. Consider this a positive return.

At 10 p.m., ABC’s aforementioned Celebrity Wife Swap (#2: 4.4/ 7) maintained 79 percent of the 9:30 p.m. portion of The Bachelor.

Like ABC and CBS, NBC was in all originals last night. But its combination of recent game show entry Who’s Still Standing (#3: 3.1/ 5), recent returnee Fear Factor (#3: 3.3/ 5) and soon-to-relocate Rock Center With Brian Williams (#3: 2.7/ 4) only averaged a 3.0/ 5 for the evening in the overnights. In just four weeks, Fear Factor has declined by 36 percent (vs. a 5.2/ 8 for the two episode return on 12/12/11). As a reminder, two hours of NBC’s The Voice in the Monday 8-10 p.m. block will lead into Smash at 10 p.m. effective on Feb. 6, which comes from executive producer Steven Spielberg and features a diversified group of characters who come together to put on a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Elsewhere, Fox populated this first Monday of 2012 with back-to-back repeats of tired House (#2: avg. 2.2/ 3 from 8-10 p.m.). And The CW aired back-to-back repeats of freshman drama The Secret Circle (#5: avg. 0.6/ 1), which is back with an original episode on Thursday.

As a reminder, upcoming J.J Abrams drama Alcatraz kicks-off on Fox with a two-hour installment on Monday, Jan. 16 from 8-10 p.m. ET/PT. One week later it airs Mondays at 9 p.m. out of relocated House at 8 p.m. Alcatraz features guards from the famous prison who mysteriously reappear in present day to help a team of FBI agents track down the disappearance of a group of prisoners 30 years earlier. Sam Neill and Jorge Garcia star.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights