Ratings News - 21st September 2012

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NOTE: The tables will be posted in separate post later.

Metered Market Thursday Ratings
NBC Sitcom Season Openers Do Not Resonate

Thursday 9/20/12
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
Fox 6.1/10
CBS 5.1/ 8
NBC 3.3/ 6
ABC 2.6/ 4
CW 1.1/ 2

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-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 9/22/11
Keep in mind that the comparable year-ago evening was the first Thursday of the 2011-12 season.
NBC: -21, Fox: -27, CBS: -43, CW: -45, ABC: -64

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-Countdown to the Official Start of the 2012-13 TV Season: 3 days

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-Winners:
The X Factor (Fox), The Big Bang Theory R (CBS)

-Tired:
The Office (NBC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
Up All Night (NBC), Parks and Recreation (NBC), The Next (CW), Rock Center With Brian Williams (NBC)

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Ratings Breakdown:
NBC aired all originals last night, including the season-premiere episodes of sitcoms Up All Night, The Office and Parks and Recreation. But it only managed to finish a distant third overall in the metered markets behind Fox and CBS.

Fox dominated each of its four half hours last night thanks to The X Factor (7.0 rating/12 share) and relocated Glee (5.3/ 9). But The X Factor declined by 19 percent from the first half of its two-hour installment on the year-ago evening (8.8/14 on 9/22/11) and ABC and CBS do not roll out their new Thursday line-ups until next week. A more realistic test, particularly for Glee, will come next week when the competition will include Grey’s Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men and Person of Interest. Retention for Glee out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of The X Factor (7.5/12) was 71 percent.

NBC, which just does not resonate in the overnights with its Thursday comedies, did get some mileage from 8 p.m. special option, Saturday Night Live’s Primetime Election Special, which finished third with a 4.0/ 7 in the overnights. But the second season-premiere of Up All Night dipped to a 2.7/ 4 at 8:30 p.m. (#3), which was 43 percent below its series-opener on Wednesday 9/21/11 (4.7/ 8). The ninth (and final) season premiere of The Office did perk up to a 3.5/ 6 at 9 p.m. (#3), but year-to-year that was down by 35 percent (versus a 5.4/ 8 on 9/22/11). And lead-out Parks and Recreation dipped to a fourth-place 2.8/ 5 at 9:30 p.m.



Factoring in soon to return 30 Rock, Community and Whitney and there was no reason for NBC to renew all these low-rated comedies.

Older-skewing Rock Center With Brian Williams capped off the evening for NBC with a second-place 3.4/ 6 at 10 p.m., which was 13 percent below the series-premiere of failed year-ago drama Prime Suspect (4.6/ 8 on 9/22/11).

Elsewhere, CBS populated this third Thursday in September with encore telecasts of The Big Bang Theory (two episodes – #2: avg. 6.0/10 from 8-9 p.m.), Two and a Half Men (two episodes – #2, avg. 4.7/ 8 from 9-10 p.m.) and Person of Interest (#1: 4.6/ 8 at 10 p.m.), which shifts back to 9 p.m. next week out of Two and a Half Men (and into the series premiere of drama Elementary).

ABC opened with an original installment of tired Wipeout (#4: 2.6/ 5 at 8 p.m.), followed by repeats of Grey’s Anatomy (#4: 3.0/ 5) and Scandal (#3: 2.3/ 4) from 9-11 p.m. And The CW aired a repeat of The Vampire Diaries (#5: 1.0/ 2) and bland singing competition The Next (#5: 1.1/ 2), which has absolutely no chance of being renewed.

Source: Nielsen Media Research

Source: Marc Berman@TVMediaInsights