2011-12 Season Ratings - Spring

Here's the first Friday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


The fact is that the average number of viewers on this Friday compared to Thursday (yesterday) during the two hour competition is 45% fewer in the 18-49 demo and 33% fewer in the 50+ crowd.

And the contrasting fact is that at 10:00 the demo was 6.5% higher than Thursday and the 50+ was 16% higher than Thursday.

ABC ranked #2 for the night and in the two hour competition, even though "Shark Tank" was a rerun. And "20/20" won the demo at 10:00.

CBS won the night overall without getting above a 1.8 in the demo. The important thing to note is that in the 50+ crowd total for the night CBS nearly doubled the number watching ABC. After two weeks of NCAA Basketball "Undercover Boss" returned lower. After a bit of a hiatus "CSI:NY" came back close to its last new episode. "Blue Bloods" returned to its normal ratings.

Fox. The "Kitchen Nightmares" season finale dropped a bit. "Fringe" gained a little coming back to its February Sweeps average.

NBC's "Who Do You Thing You Are" genealogy reality show does well in the 50+ crowd. "Grimm" and "Dateline" not so much.

The CW's rating are almost relevant of Fridays, almost.

Here's the first Sunday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


CBS carried from 8:00 - 11:00, and won the night with, "The Academy of Country Music Awards" last night which means that the ratings tell us nothing about the future of any of the regular Sunday TV shows on any network during that time period.

NBC decided to carry from 8:00 - 11:00 three hours of "Celebrity Apprentice" pulling average ratings for the show in all three hours. It did beat their 8:00 regular "Harry's Law" in the 18-49 demo but pulled only slightly more than half the 50+ viewers.

ABC ran its regular lineup which saw slightly lower ratings against a popular awards show on CBS.

Fox other than a "The Simpsons" rerun at 8:00 ran its regular liineup which saw slightly lower ratings against a popular awards show on CBS.

Here's the first Monday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


CBS. We need to get this out of the way. If you were on the East Coast, the NCAA Basketball Championship Game shows up in these ratings from 9:00 -11:00. If you were on the West Coast, the Game which began at 6:00 shows up in these ratings from 8:00 - 8:30. The only thing one can say about this is that the Game pulled a large audience which has no meaning for the regular CBS schedule.

ABC. "Dancing with the Stars" and "Castle" took a hit because of the game.

NBC. "The Voice" took a hit because of the game. "Smash" did not suffer much.

Fox. Despite all my fearful ranting to the contrary, at this new day and time "Bones" was up over its Thursday last new episode and above ratings for "House" in this time slot. And "House" at 9:00 was up over its last new episode at 8:00 as well as scoring well above "Alcatraz." Of course, this was not against the regular schedule on CBS. Fox still finished #4 in the 8:00 - 10:00 competition. But it was a much higher scoring #4 than in the past few months. :sure:

The CW. :shrug:

On occasion, its worth noting the cable channel ratings, including premiums, such as this past Sunday. Keep in mind that the ratings shown are the top 100 cable shows for adults 25-54 with some interpolation from additional sources. So there is no apples-to-apples info available except where the channel releases info which is, of course, spin control.

While the times are a little off for West Coast viewers, it's worth noting that top cable shows during the 9:00 hour attracted a demo of 9.7 and 25.4 million total viewers while as we noted above broadcast networks attracted 10.1 and 32.6.

The basic cable and premium models are different from the broadcast system. The three showings of the premier of "Game of Thrones" on HBO attracted a 3.3 demo and 6.28 million total, but there will be additional showings throughout the week. HBO isn't selling ratings to advertisers, but they do have to make sure their subscribers are interested in what they offer.

Ratings for "Ax Men" on the History Channel regularly beat anything on The CW.

And "The Killing" on AMC premiered down this year. Whether that was because the fans are angry at how AMC handled the show's season finale last year is hard to say. But cable channels do sell ads.

This reminds us that there are a lot of regular TV viewers watching cable channels, not broadcast TV.

Here's the first Tuesday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


Next Tuesday the big four will return to their regular schedule, which makes last night a ratings yawn.

CBS, which generally controls Tuesday nights, ran all reruns.

NBC ran new episodes of its entire schedule giving it an 18-49 demo ratings win in the 8:00 - 10:00 competition while coming in a distant #3 in the 50+ crowd. And "Fashion Star" did not do well at 10:00 given that CBS was running a rerun.

ABC's "Dancing with the Stars Encore" at 8:00 didn't seem to do better than the regularly scheduled "Last Man Standing". But combined with the "DWTS Results" it gave the network #2 in the demo and #1 in the 50+ crowd against the CBS reruns in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition. "Body of Proof" won in the 10:00 slot.

Fox appears to have created a problem for "New Girl." During the last Sweeps, "Glee" averaged 3.0/8 - 7.36 milion giving "New Girl" a solid lead in allowing it to average 3.2/8 - 6.56 million in the 9:00 half hour slot.

Not liking success, Fox replaced "Glee" with a dismal comedy lineup, allow "New girl" to drop to a 2.3/6 - 4.58 million last night. The show that used to edge out new episodes of "NCIS: LA" fell to #3 when "NCIS: LA" was a rerun.

Yes, I know that "DWTS" and "The Voice" results shows are tough live viewer competition. But what will happen next week when CBS is back with new episodes?

The CW. :shrug:

Here's the first Wednesday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


Next Wednesday will see all new episodes of the complete Spring lineup. But this week gives a hint of what it's going to look like.

ABC ran reruns through all but 9:30 of the primetime schedule. This means that from 8:00 to 9:30 its strong comedy lineup wasn't competing against the offerings of others. And at 10:00 they ran another rerun of "MIssing", I guess trying to get as much revenue as possible from a weak show.

Fox, of course, controlled the 8:00 - 10:00 competition with "American Idol", but down from last week and way down from last year:


Losing 35% of its 18-49 demo is a potentially big revenue problem for Fox next year.

CBS. "Survivor" and "Criminal Minds" were both down slightly and, though not as bad as "Idol", compared to last year for CBS the 8:00 - 10:00 also was off from last year:


NBC. Without any new episode competition from ABC's comedy lineup, "Betty White's Off Their Rockers" and "Best Friends Forever" premiered to pathetic ratings. "Bent's" two episodes finale ratings looked like a The CW program, as did "Brian Williams" at 10:00.

It's clear that next week isn't likely to see much improvement for Wednesdays. This night is open to an all new schedule next fall for the peacock network.

The CW's "One Tree Hill" two-hour series finale ended a nine season, 187 episode run for the show, but certainly not on a ratings high.

TBoneit said:

Thanks for the good work.

Sort of a shame about Bent, I enjoyed it. Of course once I've seen something I don't watch it again so all the re-runs had no interest for me.

Last night for example I watched Bent, CSI, Bent, ABC News. Somewhere in there I tried to watch BFF, tried.
Maybe tonight I'll watch Psych.

Anyway thanks again for the charts, I find them interesting.

Click to expand...

Thanks. It's good to know people find the information interesting. And like you, we don't watch reruns so we have been watching "Bent" which we thought was a pretty good sitcom.

Here's the second Thursday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


CBS won the night in every time slot but 8:30. "The Mentalist" of course won 10:00. "Person of Interest" won the 18-49 demo and pulled double the 50+ audience against #2 "Grey's Anatomy." "Big Bang Theory" again beat "American Idol" in the 8:00 half hour.

Fox. Ignore everything you might see headlined about ratings elsewhere. Here's the headline-worthy fact of last night's ratings:


In the 8:00 -10:00 competition CBS ratings compared to last year climbed 11% ± 1%. Fox's ratings compared to last year dropped 33% ± 2%.

Last year "American Idol" pulled 6.1 million in the demo. This year 3.8 million, a drop of 37%. Last year "Bones" pulled a 3.4 million in the demo. This year "Touch" pulled a 2.3 million, a drop of 32%. Fox's programming has always been targeted at the demo. "Touch" came in #3.

Fox has a problem and it's not a simple one to resolve as it's at the corporate level.

ABC also has a problem.

"Missing" at 8:00 is a ratings disaster.

At 9:00 the aging "Grey's Anatomy" is now running well behind "Person of Interest" in total viewers and slightly behind in the demo.

At 10:00 "Scandal" premiered at #2 well behind "The Mentalist" and it looks like it's going to be under 2.0 in the demo in the future with no chance in the 50+ crowd.

I'm not quite sure where ABC is coming from, but it's 10:00 lineup paints a picture.

• Sunday we have "GBC" which IMHO has no significant male leads.
• Monday we have "Castle" which has a strong female detective even though the show's namesake is a male, troubled and sensitive, surrounded at home by a mother and daughter.
• Tuesday we have "Body of Proof" with two strong women leads, soon to be replaced by "Private Practice", a show that Kate Walsh's character has been made into the lead even though it has other strong women characters and some really interesting men characters played by strong actors.
• Wednesday we have "Revenge", starring Emily VanCamp whose character is pitted against Madeleine Stowe's character.
• Thursday we have "Scandal" which I haven't seen yet but ABC describes as a show that "delves into the behind-the-scenes machinations of a mesmerizing top crisis manager, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington)."

If you add to that Sunday's "Once Upon a Time" and Wednesday's "Missing", I see a big picture forming related to gender.

I know that "Desperate Housewives" which started in 2004 and "Grey's Anatomy" which started in 2005 were hits. But is this programming really going to work? The ratings don't indicate it.

And what's the deal with these Shonda Rhimes shows. The only real hit she has given us is "Grey's Anatomy" which propped up her "Private Practice." Her "Off the Map" was a ratings disaster and "Scandal" appears to have started out in that direction without the benefit of a "Grey's" with high ratings.

NBC, is the network neither ABC nor Fox should emulate, the network that let one viewpoint control its programming.

The CW. :shrug:

Here's the second Friday of the Spring 2012 season:

And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


CBS won the night in every time slot in both the 18-49 demo and 50+ crowd.

Fox moved "The Finder" to Friday's at 8:00. In its last new episode on Thursday at 9:00 it pulled a 2.3/6 - 5.0 - 7.28 million and during Sweeps it averaged 2.2/6 - 6.8 - 8.96 million.

But apparently the suits at Fox thought that "Touch" would do better in that Thursday slot. Actually "Touch" has already declined from its premier to fewer viewers.

In the meantime, "The Finder" in its new slot last night was down 57% in the 18-49 demo and 60% in the 50+ crowd. Way to go Fox, using that traditional "gain nothing, lose a lot" scheduling system you've cleverly developed.

"Fringe" continued its slide in the demo, but did better in the 50+ crowd with a better lead in in that group than it got from "Kitchen Nightmares."

NBC's "Grimm" continues to hold on. Maybe it will improve since they've gotten a second season.

ABC's ratings were normal for the night.

The CW. :shrug:

Here's the second Sunday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


CBS had a long overrun of The PGA Masters in the East which basically makes these overnight ratings useless. I'll try to clean them up for next week, as we don't even have real numbers for the season finale of "CSI: Miami."

ABC was given an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that "GBC" has a future when it aired two new episodes with the 9:00 episode given the gift of CBS running a rerun of "The Good Wife." What we learned is that "GBC" appears to have a demo ceiling of 1.9 and is losing 0.3 million 50+ viewers with each airing.

Fox ran reruns except for "Family Guy" at 9:00. Because of the golf overrun on CBS it's a little unclear, but it appears "Family Guy" won the demo at 9:00.

NBC's "Harry's Law" pulls a really strong 50+ rating. Again, until the final CBS ratings are in, we can't determine 10:00 with any clarity. But "Celebrity Apprentice" appears to have gained.

Here's the second Monday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


NBC & ABC. This Spring season Monday night, particularly from 8:00 - 10:00, gives us a curious snapshot.

In the first two weeks of Spring, NBC's "The Voice" has averaged 43% higher ratings in the 18-49 demo than ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." But "DWTS" pulls over twice the viewers in the 50+ group.

Taking a look at the 10:00 hour which to some degree gets a boost from the lead in, last night cannot be counted because of ABC running a rerun of "Scandal". But in the previous three weeks, ABC's "Castle" averaged a 2.3 in the 18-49 demo and a 9.6 in the 50+, while NBC's "Smash" averaged a 2.2 in the demo and but only 4.3 in the 50+.

Is this just a function of the older group relating more to ballroom dancing and the older stars in "DWTS"? And maybe the younger group relates more to younger people being able to aspire for a better life?

Or are we seeing a hint of a serious future divide in entertainment choices? And if so, are advertisers going to consider the demo more valuable even if it is only somewhere between a half to two-thirds the number of viewers than those in the 50+ group?

CBS offers a comedy lineup in the 8:00 to 10:00 period that ranked second to NBC's demo and ABC's 50+. At 10:00, when all three networks run new episodes, "Hawaii Five-0" tends to beat "Castle" in the demo and "Smash" in the 50+.

Fox. Technically, last week "Bones" pulled a higher rating than its previous new episode on Thursday, but that was at 8:00 in January, not its regular time and the rating was 2.4/6 - 8.63 million total viewers. It did not pull that last night and we have to note when the show ran somewhat regularly on Thursday at 9:00 last fall season it had ratings averaging around 2.8/7 - 9 million total viewers.

While Fox has renewed "Bones" for 2012-13, it appears the show will see a decline in ratings on Monday at 8:00 partly because of the competition and partly because viewers get tired of trying to find their shows.

Which brings us to "House." As we might remember, when Fox moved "House" back to 8:00 in January it's ratings recovered. Realizing that they had higher ratings, Fox decided to move it back to 9:00 where it could again garner lower ratings, since getting lower ratings seems to be the overall goal at Fox this year.

The CW ran the first new episode since February 27 of "Hart of Dixie", the only show on The CW that we watch, mostly because it's cute and the music is great. But in terms of ratings...:shrug:

Here's the second Tuesday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


ABC. "Last Man Standing" continues to struggle with ratings but not as badly as "Cougar Town." "Dancing with the Stars Results" dropped. But the "Body of Proof" finale (season or series?) won 10:00.

CBS. "NCIS" won the 8:00 hour with 31% 18-49 demo and with 55% of the 50+ crowd. "NCIS: LA" found itself in a three way tie for second in the 9:00 hour with 31% 18-49 demo and firmly as second with 35% of the 50+ crowd slighly behind "DWTS." "Unforgettable" ran second against the "Body of Proof" finale.

Next week the "Unforgettable" ratings will be interesting. ABC will move "Private Practice" into the 10:00 slot. While "DWTS Results" seems like it would give a good lead in much like "Grey's Anatomy" has on Thursdays, actually "Grey's" gave the show a strong 18 - 49 demo lead with a 70% retention rate during Sweeps. "DWTS Results" doesn't do real well in the demo. And neither "Grey's" nor "PP" did particularly well in the 50+ crowd where "DWTS" is strongest. I may be surprised, but over the next few weeks "PP" is likely to see ratings fall and "Unforgettable" will be the 10:00 winner without seeing particularly high ratings.

Fox. "Glee" returned down 10% in the demo as Fox continues to reject the possibility of having good ratings by playing "where's my show" with its viewers. "New Girl" did receive a boost with the return of "Glee" but saw only 84% of its Sweeps average. "Raising Hope", also part of Fox's "where's my show" game, did gain from its temporary 8:00 slot but ran 86% of its Sweeps demo average.

NBC appears to be the big winner in its scheduling. Compared to Sweeps averages, last night it was the only network to show a gain in the 8:00 hour, up 5% in the demo and 19% among the older crowd. At 9:00 it saw a whopping 52% increase in the demo over Sweeps averages though a 3% drop in the 50+ crowd. "The Voice" gave NBC a demo win at 9:00 and a top demo in the 8:00 - 10:00 competition. While "The Voice" and "The Biggest Loser" are not my type of shows, it's still good to see NBC gaining.

The CW. "Ringer" had a new episode last night. :shrug:

Here's the second Wednesday of the Spring 2012 season:


And here's the 8:00 to 10:00 two hour competition:


Fox's "American Idol" won the 8:00 - 10:00 competition with about 42% of the viewers in all categories. But as I've noted on previous Wednesdays and Thursdays, Fox suits must be worrying:


ABC. On the surface, it appears that ABC's comedy lineup isn't doing as well as earlier in the year. But the fact is that in the 8:00 - 10:00 competition for all networks compared to February Sweeps, the number of viewers in the demo is down 12% and in the 50+ crowd down 6%. ABC's comedy lineup is down from Sweeps 10% in the demo and 7% in the 50+ crowd. So ABC suits shouldn't worry at this point.

CBS was second in the 8:00 to 10:00 competition if one uses the 50+ ratings as a tie breaker. "CSI" saw its lead trimmed against NBC's "L&O: SVU" switching with "Brian Williams."

NBC. Wednesday is not the Peacock Network's night.

"Betty White's Off Their Rocker" and "Best Friends Forever" appear to be pulling the same miserable ratings as the shows they replaced, "Whitney" and "Are You There, Chelsea". I guess in fairness I should note that Betty White does draw more 50+ viewers than Whitney Cummings.

"Brian Williams" did beat The CW's "America's Next Top Model" in the demo, but only in the 9:30 half hour. They tied during the 9:00 half hour.:eek2:

"Law & Order: SVU" during sweeps at 9:00 averaged 1.8 in the demo and 4.2 in the 50+ group. Last nights 10:00 airing with 1.6 and 3.8 wasn't necessarily bad. But these aren't numbers NBC should be striving for.

The CW. Well, they did tie for #4 in the demo in the 9:00 half hour. :sure: