Ratings News - 18th May 2012 *Full Tables Added*

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Thursday Primetime Metered Market Ratings
Fox Wins; Seven Season Enders

Thursday 5/17/12
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
Fox 7.8/13
CBS 7.5/13
ABC 6.4/11
NBC 1.9/ 3
CW 0.5/ 1

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 5/19/11
ABC: +14, CBS: - 9, Fox: -26, NBC: -42, CW: -50

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-Winners:
American Idol (Fox), The Big Bang Theory R (CBS), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), Person of Interest (CBS), The Mentalist (CBS)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
Community (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), Perez Hilton: All Access (CW), Touch (Fox), Awake (NBC)

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-Ratings Breakdown:
Fox led this third Thursday in May, with a three-tenth of a rating point advantage in the metered markets over second-place CBS. But American Idol, which concludes for the season next Wednesday, slipped by 21 percent year-to-year. Idol averaged a dominant 11.2 rating/19 share at 8 p.m., leading into Kiefer Sutherland drama Touch at a third-place 4.4/ 7 at 9 p.m. Retention for Touch, which ends for the season with back-to-back episodes on Thursday, May 31, was only 36 percent out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of Idol (12.2/20). Unfortunately, Touch will not be strong enough to anchor Friday next season.

Third overall for the evening was ABC, followed by distant NBC and The CW.

On CBS, a repeat of The Big Bang Theory finished second at 8 p.m. with a 6.2/11, which was almost triple the 2.2/ 4 (#4) for an original installment of overrated Community on NBC. Last night’s episode should be the one Mayim Bialik sends in for Emmy consideration. Next on the Eye net was the season (or series) finale of Rules of Engagement (#2t: 5.0/ 8 at 8:30 p.m.), which is still in conversations to return next season. Following Rules of Engagement were the season-finales of Person of Interest (#2: 8.5/14), which deserves accolades for a very solid first season, and The Mentalist (#1: 8.5/15) from 9-11 p.m. The Mentalist will move to Sundays at 10 p.m. this fall out of returning The Good Wife.

Over at ABC, midseason drama Missing concluded its run with a respectable third-place 4.9/ 8 at 8 p.m. The led into the season-finale of Grey’s Anatomy at a dominant 8.7/14 at 9 p.m. (10 percent above one year earlier), followed by the season one-ender of Scandal at a second-place 5.6/10 at 10 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal remain intact in the Thursday 9-11 p.m. block next season out of new drama Last Resort.

NBC was virtually off the charts last night with three episodes of aforementioned Community, the season-finale of 30 Rock and the next-to-last episode of canceled Awake as follows:

NBC/Thursday
8:00 p.m. – Community: 2.2/ 4 (#4)
8:30 p.m. – 30 Rock (season finale): 2.3/ 4 (#4)
9:00 p.m. – Community: 1.9/ 3 (#4)
9:30 p.m. – Community (season finale): 1.7/ 3 (#4)
10:00 p.m. – Awake: 1.7/ 3 (#3)

Drama Awake officially concludes next Thursday.

Over at The CW, 8 p.m. special Perez Hilton: All Access, with Katy Perry, was a bust at a 0.6/ 1 in the overnights at 8 p.m. Next week, Perez sits down with Lady Gaga. At 9 p.m. was an encore telecast of The Vampire Diaries at a last-place 0.5/ 1 at 9 p.m.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights