Ratings News - 4th October 2013

Today's Early Top 25 Market's - 18-49 Ratings

The Big Bang Theory 5.2.
Scandal 4.3
Millers 3.0
Sean Saves the World 1.8
Elementary 1.7
Parenthood 1.5
Welcome to the Family 1.4

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)

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.

Metered Market Thursday Ratings
Mixed Results for the Quartet of Debuts

Thursday 10/03/13
Metered Market Results

Household
Rating/Share
CBS 7.6/13
ABC 6.6/11
Fox 4.1/ 7
NBC 3.1/ 5
CW 1.8/ 3

———-

-Percent Change from Year-Ago Evening – Thursday 10/04/12:
CW: +125, NBC: +15, ABC: + 8, CBS: -13, Fox: -28

———-

-Winners:
“The Big Bang Theory” (CBS), “The Millers” (CBS), “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC), “Scandal” (ABC)

-Down by Still Dominant:
“The Crazy Ones” (CBS)

-Modest but an Improvement:
“Sean Saves the World” (NBC), “The Michael J. Fox Show” (NBC)

-Disappointing:
“The Originals” (CW)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
“Parks and Recreation” (NBC), “Welcome to the Family” (NBC), “Glee” (Fox), “Parenthood” (NBC)

———-

-Ratings Breakdown:
Ignited by “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS remains the network to beat on Thursday with a 15 percent advantage in the household overnights over second-place ABC. But, year-to-year, the Eye net slipped by 13 percent (versus an eight percent rise for ABC).

There were four series premieres – sitcoms “The Millers” on CBS and “Welcome to the Family” and “Sean Saves the World” on NBC, and drama “The Originals” on The CW. And the lead-in support from “The Big Bang Theory,” of course, gave “The Millers” the advantage. “The Millers” opened with a dominant 8.3 rating/14 share at 8:30 p.m., which was three percent below the year-ago season-premiere of former time period occupant “Two and a Half Men” (8.6/14 on 9/27/12). Comparably, retention for “The Millers” was 73 percent out of “The Big Bang Theory” (11.4/19 at 8 p.m.), which was expected. Consider this a positive start for “The Millers.”

Week two of sitcom “The Crazy One” with Robin Williams at 9 p.m. took a hit, as expected, with a loss of 25 percent (versus a 10.0/16 on Sept. 26). But the 7.5/12 in the overnights was still tops in the 9 p.m. half-hour (two-tenths of a rating point, or three percent, above the first half of “Grey’s Anatomy” on ABC). Relocated “Two and a Half Men” dipped to second at 9:30 p.m., with a 6.5/10 in the overnights. And the combination of “The Millers” and “Two and a Half Men” was 26 percent below year-ago occupant “Person of Interest” (9.4/14 on 10/04/12), which is not as strong now on Tuesday. While the comedies will hold an advantage over “Person of Interest” in the young demos, more expected erosion in the upcoming weeks could be detrimental. Stay tuned.

At 10 p.m., sophomore “Elementary” closed the night for CBS with a second-place 6.1/11, which was 23 percent below the third season-premiere of highly anticipated drama “Scandal” on ABC (7.9/14). Year-to-year, “Scandal” increased by a hefty 61 percent (versus a 4.9/ 8 on 10/04/12)., with growth out of “Grey’s Anatomy” of eight percent.

Earlier in the evening on ABC was a “Scandal” recap special at a third-place 4.6/ 8 at 8 p.m., followed by aforementioned “Grey’s Anatomy” at an above-average 7.3/12 from 9-10 p.m.

NBC had mixed results courtesy of its revamped two-hour sitcom block. “Parks and Recreation” remained out of the competitive loop, with a mere 2.5/ 4 in the overnights at 8 p.m. (#4). And it led into a 2.6/ 4 for the debut of “Welcome to the Family,” which was only a slight improvement from the 2.4/ 4 for former time period occupant “Up All Night” on the year-ago evening.

New Sean Hayes sitcom “Sean Saves the World” had a stronger opening reception at 9 p.m., with a third-place 3.8/ 6. And that, comparably, bested year-ago occupant “The Office” (3.1/ 5 on 10/04/12) by 19 percent. Week two (and episode three) of lead-out “The Michael J. Fox Show” lost considerable steam from its week-ago opener, with a 3.8/ 6 at 9:30 p.m. (#3) down by 28 percent from the average 5.3/ 9 in the overnights one week earlier. But this was still 52 percent above year-ago occupant “Parks and Recreation” (2.5/ 4 on 10/04/12). And it was three percent above the “Sean Saves the World” opener. If “Michael J. Fox” can settle in now (which is very unlikely, unfortunately) it could be a keeper.

The moral of the story: The NBC comedies have a limited audience on Thursday; that will not change this season. But 9-10 p.m. could be an improvement if “Sean Saves the World” and “The Michael J. Fox Show” hold up. “Welcome to the Family” was a huge disappointment.

Relocated “Parenthood” closed the night for NBC with a distant third-place 3.0/ 5 at 10 p.m., which was nine percent below last week’s season-premiere. And while this did improve by 15 percent from year-ago occupant “Rock Center With Brian Williams” (2.6/ 5 on 10/04/12), this is by no means positive.

Over at The CW, “The Vampire Diaries” spin-off “The Originals,” which is regularly scheduled in the Tuesday 8 p.m. hour (into relocated “Supernatural”) previewed with a 1.7/ 3 at 9 p.m. While the retention for “The Originals” out of the season-premiere of “The Vampire Diaries” (#5: 2.0/ 3) was positive at 85 percent, this was 29 percent below the series-debut of year-ago time period occupant “Beauty and the Beast” (2.4/ 4 on 10/11/12), which at the time faced the live Vice Presidential Debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. That said, “Beauty and the Beast” was inflated, but “The Originals” opener is still a disappointment. Let’s see what the young adult demos look like.

Fox capped off the night with “The X Factor” (#2: 5.2/ 9), which slipped by 27 percent from the year-ago evening, and “Glee” (#4: 3.1/ 5), which was down by 30 percent from the 4.4/ 7 in the overnights one year earlier.

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)

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.