Here's the Ratings Five-Spot for the week ending April 15, 2012:
- Glee - Fox's musical dramedy had been off the schedule for six straight Tuesdays, but last week it returned to action. The numbers weren't anything special, as the 6.76 million viewers and 2.7 demo were both new season lows. However, they were huge improvements over that same hour for Fox during the six-week hiatus, and they got Fox back into the competitive mix on Tuesday. Perhaps most important was that they gave fading New Girl a considerable boost at 9/8c, as its 2.8 demo was up more than 20% from the prior week. However, New Girl still looks weaker than it did at the beginning of the Glee hiatus, when it could get a 3.0 without Glee's help. Week after week of crappy lead-ins has worn on this show.
- Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 - The last sitcom premiere of the 2011-12 broadcast regular season was ABC's Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, which got the cushy post-Modern Family timeslot on Wednesday. The raw numbers (6.91m, 2.9 demo) look pretty solid so far, but the show still lost nearly a third of lead-in Modern Family's 4.2 demo rating. The premiere doesn't look all that different from those of eventually cancelled Mr. Sunshine (3.7 out of a 5.1 from Modern) and renewed Happy Endings (2.8 out of a 3.9), so we'll have to see where it goes from here.
- The Big Bang Theory - Rumors have been flying practically since the beginning of the season that CBS will go for a two-hour comedy block on Thursday night next season. If that's the direction CBS is leaning, Thursday's test of such a block probably won't discourage them. Even a special repeat of The Big Bang Theory (10.21m viewers, 3.1 demo) was able to win the 9:00 half-hour against original episodes of former giants Grey's Anatomy and The Office. With five really strong comedies, I don't think CBS has any choice but to add more comedy time unless they really want to stunt their comedy development. I think it's coming.
- NYC 22 - The last scripted premiere on the big four broadcasters this season came on CBS, where they could not get much demo interest out of cop show NYC 22. The show drew a preliminary 8.90 million viewers and 1.5 demo rating. That ain't gonna cut it on CBS. It's probably fair to put some of the blame on its lead-in, The Good Wife, which could only itself score a 1.8. But previous occupant CSI: Miami was regularly able to go above 2.0 given that lead-in, at least when it started on time. For NYC 22 to come up that short on the night of the series premiere means this show will soon be gone and forgotten.
- Girls - As we always rediscover when a critically acclaimed show on pay cable premieres to low ratings, there are lots of ways to spin numbers. The bottom line is that 872,000 viewers for the premiere telecast of Girls is not very good. (Don't have a demo rating, but it'll probably be about a 0.4.) The other bottom line is that those numbers are not bad enough to get worried about. As long as the buzz remains strong, this show will be back for a second season, especially since it's probably pretty inexpensive by HBO standards.
