Before I head out, I thought I would whet your appetite for the Thursday fast nationals (which TravisYanin will post) with the overnight results. Keep in mind that these exclude the New York, Philadelphia and Tampa markets, which were not available at press time.
Thursday 2/22/07
Metered Market Results
Household Rating/Share
ABC 12.1/18
CBS 10.8/16
Fox 9.4/14
NBC 5.7/ 9
CW 2.2/ 3
-Percent Change From the Comparable Year-Ago Evening (Thursday 2/23/06)
(The CW is compared to theatrical Just Married on the WB . NBC aired the 2006 Winter Olympics.)
CBS: +21, ABC: + 9, CW: no change, Fox: - 3, NBC: -67
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-Yesterday’s Winners:
American Idol (Fox), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), CSI (CBS), The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special (ABC)
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):
Scrubs (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), The O.C. (Fox)
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-Ratings Breakdown:
A Thursday edition of American Idol brought Fox to life in the overnights, but it was not enough to top either ABC or CBS. ABC finished first in the metered markets, beating the No. 2 Eye net by 12 percent. Fox was third, followed by NBC and the CW. Keep in mind that the New York, Philadelphia and Tampa markets are excluded from these averages.
The first live American Idol results show won the 8 p.m. hour with ease, at a 14.5 rating/22 share. Comparably, that beat CBS’ below average Survivor: Fiji (8.6/13) by a hefty 69 percent in rating and nine share points. The year-ago evening also featured a Thursday edition of American Idol, which was almost identical at a 14.4/21. Note to Antonella Barba and Sanjaya Malakar: you were lucky this time around!
Third in the 8 p.m. hour was a repeat of ABC’s over-exposed Grey’s Anatomy (7.0/11), followed by NBC’s young adult dependent My Name is Earl (6.1/ 9) and The Office (5.5/ 8), and a repeat of Smallville on the CW (2.7/ 4). Be careful ABC -- too much of Grey’s Anatomy could eventually negatively impact the soon-to-be growing franchise.
The regularly scheduled edition of Grey’s Anatomy finished first, as usual, at 9 p.m. with a rock-solid 17.5/25 in the overnights. Down, but far from out, was CBS’ second-place CSI at a still healthy 14.1/20. In series-finale news, leading out of American Idol did not do much good for Fox’s The O.C., which closed its four-season run at a third-place 4.4/ 6 in the overnights. While that was a season-high, retention out of Idol was just 30 percent, and the second half-hour dipped by 20 percent in rating and one share point (4.9/ 7 to 3.9/ 6). Oh well…
Also at 9 p.m. were struggling NBC sitcoms Scrubs (4.1/ 6) and 30 Rock (3.4/ 5), and a repeat of the CW’s Supernatural (1.6/ 2).
ABC moved into the winner’s circle at 10 p.m., with The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special at an 11.8/19, which is a double-digit increase over regularly scheduled occupant Men in Trees. Next was CBS’ renewal-worthy Shark (9.7/15), followed by NBC’s tired ER (7.4/12). Of positive note for ER was, of course, growth out of 30 Rock of a significant 118 percent.
For a look at what ABC is putting into the Thursday 10 p.m. time period in March, see TV Tidbits below.
Source: Nielsen Media Research data
