-Adults 18-49: ABC: 6.0 rating/16 share, CBS and Fox: 3.5/ 9 each, NBC: 2.7/ 7, CW: 1.7/ 5
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-Yesterday’s Winners: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader (Fox), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), October Road (ABC)
-Honorable Mention: Raines (NBC)
-Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats): Scrubs (NBC), Andy Barker, P.I. (NBC)
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-Ratings Breakdown: On a night with three series premieres, the First Round, day one of NCAA Basketball and the 8 p.m. time period premiere of Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, ABC reigned supreme, beating distant No. 2 basketball-fueled CBS by a hefty 6.24 million viewers, and CBS and Fox by 71 percent among adults 18-49. NBC was fourth and the CW fifth.
The time period premiere of Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader opened the evening on a winning note, with a comfortable 12.18 million viewers and a 4.5 rating/13 share among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. Comparably, that beat ABC’s competing Ugly Betty (Viewers: #2, 10.77 million; A18-49: 3.4/10) by 1.41 million viewers and 32 percent among adults 18-49. According to my estimations, this is the strongest show Fox has had in the Thursday 8 p.m. hour since sitcoms Martin and Living Single in 1996-97. Now all Fox needs to do is find something compatible for Thursday at 9 p.m. It should be interesting on March 29 when 5th Grader faces CBS’ Survivor: Fiji for the first time.
Over at CBS, the First Round, day one of the NCAA Basketball Tournament scored an expected 9.59 million viewers and a 3.5/ 9 among adults 18-49 in prime time. This was comparable to its day one performance on the year-ago evening.
Also in the 8 p.m. hour were two repeat episodes of NBC’s The Office (Viewers: #4, avg. 6.63 million; A18-49: #4, avg. 2.8/ 8) and the CW’s Smallville (Viewers: 4.58 million; A18-49: 2.0/ 6).
ABC’s dominance, of course, extended to 9 p.m., with the rock-solid Grey’s Anatomy at 22.38 million viewers and an 8.8/22 among adults 18-49. Comparably, that was the highest rated show of the evening. Second in the hour was the middle portion of the NCAA Basketball Tournament at 10.68 million viewers and a 3.8/ 9 in the demo. In series-premiere news, NBC Andy Richter sitcom Andy Barker, P.I. debuted with a lackluster 5.84 million viewers and a 2.4/ 6 among adults 18-49 at 9:30 p.m., which was similar to recent levels for former occupant 30 Rock. Comparably, that was down from lead-in Scrubs (Viewers: #3, 6.37 million; A18-49: #3, 2.8/ 7 at 9 p.m.) by 530,000 viewers and 14 percent among adults 18-49. Why most of the critics praised Andy Barker, P.I. is beyond me.
Also in the 9 p.m. hour were back-to-back repeats of Fox’s animated Family Guy (Viewers: #4, avg. 5.76 million; A18-49: #3t, 2.6/ 7) and Supernatural on the CW (Viewers: #5, 3.54 million; A18-49: #5, 1.4/ 4).
In the battle of the two new Thursday 10 p.m. dramas opposite the third hour of the NCAA Basketball Tournament on CBS (Viewers: #3, 8.43 million; A18-49: #2, 3.3/ 9), ABC’s October Road took the hour with a solid 14.34 million viewers and a 5.8/16 among adults 18-49. But the also good news for NBC’s Raines (Viewers: #2, 10.34 million; A18-49: #3, 2.9/ 8) was growth of a healthy 4.50 million viewers and 21 percent among adults 18-49 over lead-in Andy Barker, P.I. October Road was down by 8.04 million viewers and 34 percent in the demo from lead-in Grey’s Anatomy, with a loss of 1.88 million viewers (15.28 to 13.40 million) and 15 percent among adults 18-49 (6.2/17 to 5.3/15) at 10:30 p.m. Raines only slipped by 360,000 viewers (10.52 to 10.16 million) and seven percent among adults 18-49 (3.0/ 8 to 2.8/ 8).
As a basis of comparison for October Road and Raines, take a look at the two versus the most recent performances of ER and Men In Trees.
Thursday 10 p.m. ABC October Road – Viewers: 14.34 million; A18-49: 5.8/16 Men in Trees (Feb. 15) – Viewers: 10.87 million; A18-49: 4.0/11
Since no one should have expected October Road to hold more of the Grey’s Anatomy lead-in, we’ll consider both dramas – October Road and Raines – off to positive starts.
That's solid premieres for October Road and Raines. It will be interesting to see how the hold up next week. Did anyone watch them? I DVR'd them and plan on checking them out this weekend.
I'm happy to see that Supernatural has picked up some more steam. To do that number after a little hiatus, in which the last episode had 3.03 million, is very nice. In fact, SN's # was higher than the last 10 episodes!. This should be a lock for a 3rd season, don't you think Marc?.
Posts: 87 | Location: Spokane, WA | Registered: 15 January 2007
SN wasn't a repeat though. Or am I reading that wrong? It was a new epi and yeah, it did well. Yeah I know it didn't by major tv standards but it did by CW standards and that's what counts right now.
Originally posted by Barrybgb: I'm happy to see that Supernatural has picked up some more steam. To do that number after a little hiatus, in which the last episode had 3.03 million, is very nice. In fact, SN's # was higher than the last 10 episodes!. This should be a lock for a 3rd season, don't you think Marc?.
I wonder how much having Battlestar Gallactica's Tricia Helfer as guest star helped. Also, the budget for last night's episode must have been tiny. Very few actors/locations. The preview for next week looked terrific.
WOW. A dramtic difference from over nights between 5th Grader and UB. The Numbers for 5th grader were not as high as we expected, but they did dominate over UB.
Looks like those that watched Raines last night, liked it almost nothing lost at 10:30pm.
If you didn't see Raines last night, Check it out again tonight.
I watched all the 3 premieres and i must say that i'm really happy with results. Both Raines and October Road were at least decent, while Andy Barker (is this show supposed to be a comedy???) was a mess.
I haven't checked out October Road (though the word from the critics is that it's really bad), but Raines was ok. Not appointment viewing, but interesting enough that it's a good choice if there's nothing else on. Interesting that it skewed so much older than ER. Is that just the nature of the procedural?
