It was a mixed bag in the ratings department last night, with a pretty good night all round for CBS, but the opposite for ABC
Winning the night at 8pm was CBS's The Big Bang Theory, which pulled in a season premiere equalling 5.0 18/49 rating, and 15.82 million viewers for its half hour. The total viewers is also a season high, and a series high for a fifth episode of any of its previous seasons. See the graphs on this page for more information. On ABC, things are not looking at all positive for freshman Last Resort, which dropped 0.4 of a ratings point on last week's episode, to a 1.3 rating and 6.53 million viewers. This is on the back of a ratings and audience increase that the show earned last week, which is unfortunate considering it was the best episode aside from the pilot so far this season. Over on CW, The Vampire Diaries earned a 1.3 rating and 2.87 million viewers, an equal rating to last week, though shedding a small number of viewers
At 8:30pm, CBS's Two and a Half Men aired, and despite its lead-in pulling an equal season best rating, and audience, it dropped 0.3 of a ratings point, and 650,000 viewers on last week's performance, to a 3.7 rating and 12.94 million viewers
The 9pm timeslot saw the usual shows Person of Interest and Grey's Anatomy go head to head on CBS and ABC respectively. Person of Interest continues to be incredibly consistent, with a 2.9 rating and 14.03 million viewers, up 0.1 of a ratings point and 100,000 viewers on last week. This result is also up a little on ratings this time last year, but there are 2 million more people watching the show. The graphs on this page show how consistent the show is, with a fluctuation of no more than 1 ratings point across the two seasons so far
Unfortunately the news isn't so good for Grey's Anatomy fans, with the show having dropped a total of 1.4 ratings points in the four episodes of the season so far. Last nights rating was 3.0, with just 8.76 million viewers tuning in. Both results aren't too far away to series lows, see the graphs on this page for a comparison to previous seasons
The Office was NBC's best performing show of the evening with a 1.9 rating and 4.00 million viewers. This is down 0.2 on last week's rating and down 280,000 on last week's viewers. At 9:30pm, Parks & Recreation was up 0.1 of a ratings point to 1.7, but down slightly on last week's viewers, to 3.34 million
Wrapping up the night on ABC was Scandal, with another terrific episode. It was the only show on ABC that increased its ratings on last week, with a 2.0 rating (up 0.1) but a series low 6.11 million viewers. I wonder if the poor performance of its lead-in Grey's Anatomy is having an effect?? The graphs on this page suggest so. Conversely, CBS's Elementary is continuing to do well in its late night slot alongside Scandal, with a 2.2 rating and 10.31 million viewers. This is down on last week by 0.1 of a rating and 600,000 viewers, despite lead-in Person of Interest's increase on last week
For the record, FOX aired the second World Series game, which earned a 3.5 rating and 12.34 million viewers - the third best rating and the fourth best audience of the evening
Next week, all three primetime shows take the night off on ABC to make way for the CMA Awards. They will all return in a fortnight, hopefully with better ratings. Programming on the other networks remains the same. Did your show do well, or not so well?? Make yourself heard in the comments below
Thanks for reading, don't forget to have a look around my website, www.seriesmonitor.com for even more in-depth statistics and analysis of many more shows.
Jimmy
