Ratings News - 4th April 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 4/03/14 Metered Markets
“The Big Bang Theory” Leads CBS to Victory

Household
Rating/Share
CBS 6.6/11
ABC 4.9/ 8
Fox 4.0/ 6
NBC 2.2/ 4
CW 0.6/ 1

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 4/04/13:
ABC: – 8, NBC: -12, CW: -14, CBS: -23, Fox: -29

—–

-Winners:
“The Big Bang Theory” (CBS), “Scandal” (ABC)

-Honorable Mention:
“Two and a Half Men” (CBS), “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC)

-Fading Fast:
“American Idol” (Fox)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
“Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” (ABC), “Community” (NBC), “Parks and Recreation” (NBC), “Hollywood Game Night” (NBC), “The Crazy Ones” (CBS), “Parenthood” (NBC)

—–

-Ratings Breakdown:
Mega-hit “The Big Bang Theory” led CBS to another overnight Thursday victory, with a 35 percent advantage over second-place ABC. But it was not a clean sweep, with ABC ruling from 9:30-11 p.m.

“The Big Bang Theory” topped the night, of course, with an 11.5 rating/19 share in households at 8 p.m. Next was “The Millers” at a dominant 7.0/11 at 8:30 p.m., which held only 61 percent of the “Big Bang” lead-in (and is not the hit you are led to believe). Veteran “Two and a Half Men” maintained the overnight Eye net leadership, with a 6.1/10 at 9 p.m., but on-the-fence “The Crazy Ones” slid to a second-place 4.5/ 7 at 9:30 p.m. And that put the retention out of Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher at a so-so 74 percent.

Sophomore CBS drama “Elementary” perked up to a 5.2/ 9 from 10-11 p.m., but that was 19 percent below the dominant 6.4/11 for competing “Scandal” on ABC. And “Scandal,” no doubt, will expand its advantage once the key young adult demos are released.

In series-finale news, ABC’s “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” earned its cancellation stripes with a distant third-place 2.3/ 4 from 8-9 p.m., which led into a consistent 6.0/ 9 (#2) for “Grey’s Anatomy” at 9 p.m. Year-to-year, “Grey’s Anatomy” slipped by 12 percent, while “Scandal” rose by three percent.

On Fox, demo friendly “Hell’s Kitchen” opened with a second-place 3.8/ 6 at 8 p.m., which was on par from one week earlier. And it led into a third-place 5.4/ 9 for “American Idol” at 9 p.m., which dropped by a hefty 33 percent from the 8.1/13 in the 8 p.m. hour on the year-ago evening. Assuming “Idol” will still return next season, Fox should trim it to one night per week.

Elsewhere, NBC could not compete with its low-rated line-up of “Community” (#4: 1.9/ 3), “Parks and Recreation” (#4: 2.0/ 3), “Hollywood Game Night” (#4: 2.3/ 4) and “Parenthood” (#3: 2.5/ 4), which was 19 percent below the debut of year-ago occupant “Hannibal” (3.1/ 5 on 4/04/13). And The CW filled this first Thursday in April with repeats of already renewed “The Vampire Diaries” (#5: 0.7/ 1) and “Reign” (#5: 0.6/ 1).

In late night, news of David Letterman’s upcoming retirement lifted his CBS talker to a dominant 3.2/ 6 from 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., which bested competing “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on NBC (each with a 2.4/ 6) by 33 percent.

A repeat of “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” scored a 1.4/ 5 in the overnights from 12:35-1:35 a.m., which was 17 percent above competing “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on NBC (1.2/ 4). ABC’s “Nightline” notched a typical 1.5/ 5 at 12:30 a.m., and “Later With Carson Daly” on NBC closed the night with a 0.7/ 3 at 1:30 a.m.

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.