Ratings News - 8th January 2015

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)

Tables being updated live. Please refresh for updates.

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 Wednesday Ratings
Solid Sampling for “Empire” on Fox

Wednesday 1/07/15

Household
Rating/Share
Fox 7.3/11
CBS 5.8/ 9
NBC 4.8/ 8
ABC 4.2/ 7
CW 0.8/ 1

-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening – Wednesday 1/08/14:
Fox: +329, ABC: + 2, NBC: – 2, CBS: – 8, CW: -11
(Note: “American Idol” did not air on Fox on the year-ago evening)

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Note: The following labels are based on the household overnights and are subject to change given the availability of other pending data streams. The overnights are your first look at what to potentially expect when the other results come in. And we always take into account other benchmarks including the expected demographic ratings, potential DVR usage, the critical acclaim (or lack of) and the social media presence.

-Winners:
“American Idol” (Fox), “The Middle” (ABC), “The Goldbergs” (ABC), “Empire” (Fox), “Modern Family” (ABC)

-Honorable Mention:
“The Mentalist” (CBS), “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC), “Chicago PD” (NBC)

-Losers (excluding repeats):
Nothing…there was something for every show last night.

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Ratings Breakdown:
Fox led this first Wednesday of 2015 with ease, besting No. 2 CBS by 1.5 overnight rating points. But “American Idol” continues to lose steam. On paper, a dominant 7.8 rating/12 share for the 14th season premiere of “American Idol” from 8-9 p.m. has to be considered a so-called winner. But this was still a loss of 17 percent from the 9.4/15 for the two-hour year-ago season-opener (on 1/15/14). So, more expected erosion is likely to continue this season for “American Idol.”

Particularly promising on Fox, however, was the debut of heavily promoted drama “Empire” at a first-place 6.9/10 in the overnights from 9-10 p.m. Comparably, this was a hefty 138 percent above the 2.9/ 5 for the debut of former time period occupant “Red Band Society” on 9/17/14. Overnight retention out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of “American Idol” (7.9/12) was solid at 87 percent. And the loss of audience in the second half-hour (7.0/11 to 6.7/10) was only four percent. So, “Empire” was very successfully sampled on Fox.

On CBS, the annual “People’s Choice Awards” scored a 5.9/ 9 from 9-11 p.m., which was 19 percent below the 7.3/12 on the comparable year-ago evening. And that 7.3 in the household overnights translated into 9.72 million viewers and a 2.7 rating/7 share among adults 18-49, based on the live plus same day data.

Earlier in the evening on CBS was relocated “The Mentalist” at a second-place 5.9/9 from 9-10 p.m., which resulted in a series low for competing (and similar appeal) “The Mysteries of Laura” on NBC (#4: 4.3/ 7).

“The Mysteries of Laura” led into a 5.2/ 8 for veteran “Law & Order: SVU” at 9 p.m. (#3t), which was 11 percent above its most recent telecast on Dec. 12 (4.7/ 7). And sophomore “Chicago PD” capped off the night for NBC with a second-place 5.0/ 9 at 10 p.m., which held 96 percent of its SVU lead-in (matching a season high in that benchmark).

On ABC, sitcoms “The Middle” (#3: 5.6/ 9) and sophomore “The Goldbergs” (#3: 5.0/ 8) were not negatively impacted opposite the return of “American Idol.” But a fourth-place 4.1/ 6 for “Black-ish” at 9:30 p.m. dipped by 35 percent from the 6.3/10 for “Modern Family” at 9 p.m. Both were below average opposite the debut of aforementioned “Empire” on Fox, and they led into a repeat of the pilot episode of “Galavant” at a 1.9/ 3 (#3) at 10 p.m.

The CW populated the evening with encore telecasts of “Arrow” and “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” which each scored a 0.8/ 1.

Source: Nielsen Media Research data

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 (We also where possible now post the 18-34 and 25-54 Demo Numbers).

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.

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Ratings Database

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

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