Ratings News - 21st March 2014

Today's Early Overnight Ratings

This table shows the early overnight ratings. These ratings are normally adjusted later in the day when all the ratings have been consolidated to take into account any local preemptions and/or overruns. You can find all the final adjusted numbers in our Ratings Database. (See the About section below for details about ratings)

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Early Ratings Analysis

The analysis below is based on the early household numbers and are NOT the same as the numbers that will be posted in the above table later. (See the About section below)

For more information on the Nielsen Ratings see this Wikipedia Entry.

NOTE: The opinions expressed here are NOT those of SpoilerTV but of the Author of this Article, Marc Berman.

Thursday 3/20/14 Metered Markets
ABC Leads Opposite Lackluster NCAA Basketball on CBS

Household
Rating/Share
ABC 5.2/ 8
Fox 4.7/ 8
CBS 2.5/ 4
NBC 2.3/ 4
CW 1.4/ 2

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 3/21/13:
NBC: + 5, ABC and CW: – 7 each, CBS: -19, Fox: -24

—–

-Winners:
“Hell’s Kitchen” (Fox), “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), “Scandal” (ABC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
“Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” (ABC), NCAA Basketball (CBS), “Community” (NBC), “Parks and Recreation” (NBC), “Parenthood” (NBC)

—–

-Ratings Breakdown:
ABC won this atypical Thursday, which featured two NCAA Basketball match-ups on CBS: Wolford vs. Michigan and Arizona State vs. Texas. Top-rated overnight honors for the evening went to ABC drama “Scandal,” which scored a 6.8 rating/11 share in households at 10 p.m. ET and built from its year-ago performance (6.3/11 on 3/21/13) by eight percent. Lead-in “Grey’s Anatomy” was also on the map with a dominant 6.1/10 from 9-10 p.m., but “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland at a 2.5/ 4 at 8 p.m. (#3) is waiting for the axe to officially swing.

Fox was the No. 2 network for the evening with its pairing of healthy “Hell’s Kitchen” (#1: 3.8/ 6) and the live results edition of fading “American Idol” (#2: 5.7/ 9), which slipped by 31 percent from the 8-9 p.m. edition on the year-ago evening (8.3/14 on 3/21/13).

On CBS, the two aforementioned NCAA Basketball tournaments (which featured different games on TBS and TNT last night) could not compete with an estimated 2.5/ 4 in the overnights in primetime, which is a considerable slip from the average 6.7/11 for the regularly scheduled programming on CBS last week. Keep in mind that results for any live sporting event is approximate.

Elsewhere, NBC still finished fourth despite facing the limited basketball tournament on CBS with its line-up of “Community” (#4: 2.3/ 4), “Parks and Recreation” (#4: 2.1/ 3), a repeat of “Hollywood Game Night” (#: 2.0/ 3) and “Parenthood” (#2: 2.8/ 5). Of the four programs, only “Parks and Recreation” is confirmed to return on NBC next season. And The CW was at typical overnight levels care of dramas “The Vampire Diaries” (#5: 1.6/. 3) and “Reign” (#5: 1.3/ 2). If you have not sampled “Hollywood Game Night,” you are missing an hour of pure fun and escape.

In late night, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” got a boost care of the delayed start for David Letterman on CBS, with a 3.4/ 8 in the overnights from 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. And it let into a 1.5/ 5 for “Late Night With Seth Meyers” from 12:30-1:30 a.m. Competing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC scored a 2.7/ 7 into an above-average 1.7/ 5 for “Nightline” in the 12:30 a.m. half-hour. Results for CBS were not available.

Source: Nielsen Media Research

Source:

Marc Berman@tvmediainsights

About the Daily Ratings

Each day (except Sunday) during the main TV Season we post the TV Ratings for the previous nights primetime shows for the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC). Cable Network ratings will be added to the Ratings Database.

The first item that gets posted (normally around 2pm GMT) is the early overnight analysis based on the early household numbers (these are not the same as the Total Viewers and 18-49 Demo numbers that are posted later).

Next, if available, we will post the Top 25 Market 18-49 Ratings to give you a rough idea of the ratings to following.

Later on (normally between 4pm-5pm GMT) we post the official early overnight Total Viewers and 18-49 Demo numbers in the table above.

Finally, later in the evening (10pm-11pm GMT) or the following day, the final adjusted ratings numbers are released, these are then posted in the Ratings Database. The Final Adjusted numbers are what we use for all our Renew/Cancellation Tables, Full Season Tables, Ratings Scorecards etc (see below). Friday's Final Adjusted Ratings are normally available on the following Monday.

Additional Ratings Resources

If you’re interested in Ratings/Renewals/Cancellations then we have a number of resources here at SpoilerTV that we recommend you check out.

Renew/Cancel

Our Cancellation/Renewal predictions for the current season.

Ratings Database

Historical Ratings Database for nearly all major US shows going back to their first episodes.

Full Season Tables

The current season full ratings tables for both Total Viewers and 18-49 Demos

Ratings Scorecard

See how all the shows stack up against each other in the Ratings Scorecard Table.