ratings

Easter is generally a slow night for broadcast, but two new midseason shows saw nice week-to-week gains last night. NBC’s Believe hit a four-week high with a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., up 20% from last week. In the same hour, Fox’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey grew 8% from last week, to a 1.4, tying CBS’s The Good Wife as the No. 1 program in the timeslot.

ABC’s Scandal closed its season very strong on Thursday, delivering the show’s best-ever finale numbers and its second highest rating overall. Not so hot in its exit on the night was CBS rookie comedy The Crazy Ones, which didn’t help its renewal with a modest one-hour season finale.

Fox won another low-rated Wednesday night full of repeats despite continued low ratings for American Idol. Idol averaged a 1.9 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., off a tenth from last week and hovering near a series low, though Idol does usually grow by a tenth or two when the final ratings come out in the afternoon. The show started off at 8 p.m. with a 1.7 then grew to a 2.0 over the next hour before closing out with a 1.9 at 9:30. It faced minimal competition.

In what could be a preview of next fall’s schedule, ABC moved Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to a later timeslot and got better results, undoubtedly helped by the TV show’s tie-in with the hit movie Captain America. S.H.I.E.L.D. posted a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating, up 18% over last week’s overnight rating of 1.7. S.H.I.E.L.D. grew to a 1.9 last week when final numbers were released, and there’s a good chance last night’s episode will improve as well. The show has been jumping by a tenth or two each week in the final numbers.

Replacing How I Met Your Mother will be a difficult task for CBS. Its Monday night lineup took a hit in its first outing without the veteran show, which aired its series finale two weeks ago. Last week CBS aired the NCAA title game on Monday. There weren’t a lot of shows that saw ratings gains last night. NBC easily finished first for the night among 18-49s with a 2.7 average overnight rating and an 8 share.

Here’s a bit of TV irony: On the night of a rare blood moon, Fox’s astronomy show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey slid to a new low. Cosmos posted a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating last night, off 20% from the previous week. In fact, Fox’s entire Sunday lineup took a week-to-week hit, with The Simpsons also seeing a double-digit percentage slide (off 16 percent to a 1.6 at 8 p.m.). Earlier in the night, Bob’s Burgers and American Dad both slid a tenth from last week, and Family Guy was down 9% from last week, to a 2.1.

The six-market test of the new syndicated gossip show from Harvey Levin is posting numbers up, flat and down from its lead-ins and year-ago time periods.

Could this be a preview of next fall? ABC aired a special Thursday night edition of Shark Tank at 8 p.m. last night and the reality show, which usually airs Friday, hit a six-month high in the network’s troubled timeslot, boosting ABC into a tie for first place for the night with CBS. Shark averaged a 1.6 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, the network’s best rating in the slot since Oct. 10.

With ABC littered with repeats and NBC airing a rerun to start off the night, the evening’s No. 1 show was CBS’s long-running Survivor, which has pulled comfortably ahead of reality competitor American Idol on Fox in recent weeks. Survivor averaged a 2.4 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., up a tenth over last week. It was well ahead of Idol, which posted a 1.9 in its first hour and finished with a 2.0 from 8 to 10 p.m., down a tenth from last week. If that number holds, it will mark a new Wednesday night series low, but Idol has been rising a tenth when final numbers come out most weeks.

NBC stayed just barely ahead of CBS on Tuesday night, though most of its shows suffered week-to-week declines. NBC averaged a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating and 6 share, while CBS posted a 2.0/6. The Voice was the night’s top show with a 2.8 at 8 p.m., but the hit NBC reality program was off 10% from the previous week and posted a season-low rating. NBC’s comedies also slid from their previous outings to season lows, with About a Boy falling to a 1.8 and Growing Up Fisher sliding to a 1.5.

This year’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game was another nail-biter that came down to the final minute. But viewers evidently weren’t as interested in this year’s game. Monday’s final averaged 21.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, off 10% from the 23.4 million who tuned into the 2013 final.

The top show on Monday night held up against some major additional competition. NBC’s The Voice was even to last week despite facing CBS’s coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game in its final hour. Voice posted a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., finishing as the No. 1 non-sports program of the night on broadcast.

Steve Burke doesn’t want people, or advertisers, to pay attention to total viewer ratings because “we’re in the 18-to-49 business,” he told a press gathering today in the run-up to the upfront sales season. Indeed, if presented with a program that would attract a big total audience, but would be weak in the target demo, “we wouldn’t pick that show up,” he says.

The Academy of Country Music Awards took a hit compared to last year, but they were still strong enough to boost CBS to an easy victory last night. The special averaged a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating, off 23% from last year’s 4.3. Of course, last year the awards show surged to a 12-year high, so the decline was not a surprise. Last night’s ACM Awards were actually up 0.2 in the demo compared to 2012 and finished as the top show of the night on any broadcast network.

The CBS sitcom, preempted the past two weeks by NCAA men’s basketball tournament coverage, surged in its return last night, growing 21% over its most recent episode on March 13. The Millers averaged a 2.9 adults 18-49 rating, finishing as the night’s No. 2 show behind its lead-in, The Big Bang Theory.

ABC’s Nashville, CBS’s Criminal Minds and NBC’s Chicago P.D. and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit were all up double-digit percentages over last week, notable at a time, early spring, when most shows are seeing ratings declines with daylight savings. ABC had the night’s top show with Modern Family, which averaged a 3.2, though that was down 11 percent from last week.

A number of shows saw week-to-week declines or even fell to series or season lows last night on broadcast. CBS won the night despite two of its dramas falling from last week, posting a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating and 7 share, NBC was just behind at 2.0/6. CBS’s NCIS slipped to a season low with a 2.3, off 8% from last week. At 10 p.m., Person of Interest slid a tenth from last week to a 1.9, but it still dominated its timeslot. The top show of the night, NBC’s The Voice, posted a season-low 3.0, off 12% from last week.

Google is now confident enough in Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings product that it’s going to start selling guarantees to YouTube advertisers based on OCR ratings next month. And as of the end of 2014, Google will have OCR integrated directly into its Doubleclick platform, so you’ll be dealing with Nielsen ratings when you’re doing workflow, reporting and invoicing. The billing guarantees will be available to buy from Google starting May 1.

In the week ending March 23, Live with Kelly and Michael tops the talkers in spite of preemptions due to NCAA tournament coverage.

How I Met Your Mother’s twisty ending polarized fans; some loved it and some hated it. But a lot of them sure watched it. The series finale posted all-time bests among adults 18-49 and total viewers last night, and also lifted its lead-out, the premiere of Friends with Better Lives, to decent numbers. The one-hour episode of Mother at 8 p.m. averaged a 5.3 18-49 rating, a new record and up 51% from last week’s penultimate episode. It was easily the top show of the night in the demo. Mother drew a series-high 12.94 million total viewers.

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament gave CBS another Sunday night victory, its second straight. The network averaged a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating and 6 share in primetime, comfortably ahead of No. 2 ABC, which posted a 1.8/5. It was boosted by a 4.8 rating from 7 to 7:30 p.m. for the final 20 minutes of the Kentucky-Michigan game, which also averaged 18.3 million total viewers. That delayed CBS’s primetime start to 7:20 p.m. but also lifted the network’s entire lineup.

An American Idol lead-in isn’t what it used to be, and so shows premiering out of the Fox singing competition are no longer guaranteed hits. Last night the new comedy Surviving Jack got off to a slow start behind Idol. Jack averaged a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating in the 9:30 p.m. timeslot, holding 68% of “Idol’s” 1.9 lead-in at 9 p.m. That was 18% better than Fox’s season-to-date average in the timeslot, but it’s also a timeslot where the network has struggled, with previous occupants Glee and Rake posting low ratings.

What happens in Vegas raises ratings. The cast of ABC’s hit sitcom Modern Family took a much-hyped trip to Las Vegas last night, and the show matched a four-month ratings high. Family posted a 3.5 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., up 3% from last week and tying its best rating since Nov. 11. The program was easily the top-rated show of the night and lifted ABC into second place in primetime in the demo.

Good Day New York, the morning show on Fox-owned WNYW New York, outrated both NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America among adults 25-54 and 18-49 during March (Feb. 27-March […]

With all three of its dramas seeing week-to-week gains, CBS jumped ahead of NBC on Tuesday night. CBS averaged a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating and 7 share for the night, just ahead of a 2.1/6 for NBC. CBS was up 10 percent versus last week, while NBC was off 16% dragged down in part by a repeat in the 10 p.m. hour. CBS’s top show, NCIS, averaged a 2.5 at 8 p.m., up a tenth from last week, and lead-out NCIS: Los Angeles also grew a tenth, to a 2.4.

Ted still hasn’t met the mother, but the next-to-last episode of How I Met Your Mother saw ratings surge last night. The CBS comedy jumped 17% from last week, to a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m. The show was the No. 2 program of the night in the demo just behind NBC’s The Voice, which averaged a 3.6 from 8 to 10 p.m. Mother will air its series finale next Monday with a special one-hour episode

With WSVN still No. 1, WTVJ and WPLG are adding newscasts, and personnel. “The market is as competitive as it’s ever been,” says WTVJ GM Larry Olevitch. “We have English-language stations battling it out on one side. Spanish-language stations are battling it out for their audiences. And we’re all fighting the fact that consumers can get news wherever they want it.”

A game that came down to the final minute gave CBS’s primetime lineup a lift last night. The network finished No. 1 Sunday night, boosted by the Iowa State-North Carolina contest that the Cyclones won 85-83 despite trailing by three with 56 seconds remaining. The final half hour of the game, which aired from 7 to 7:30 p.m., averaged a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating, easily the highest-rated program of the night on broadcast. That helped CBS to a 2.1 rating and 6 share in primetime, just ahead of No. 2 ABC at 1.9/5.

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament has already had a number of big surprises. And that’s generating some big ratings. Through Saturday night, the four networks airing coverage of March Madness are averaging 8.8 million total viewers per game, according to Nielsen, up 7% over last year, when it averaged 8.2 million. That’s the best average since 1991, when the tournament expanded to four telecast windows across the first four days of play.

Fallon’spowerful debut is clear in television ratings and even more stark in social media metrics. While too early to declare a new king of latenight TV, the transition is a marked change from how badly NBC fumbled the short-lived switch from Leno to Conan O’Brien in 2009. “As a guy who’s been doing this for 36 years, I don’t allow myself to think about this level of success,” said Ted Harbert, NBC broadcasting chairman. NBC had hoped for an increase in young viewers and steeled itself to lose some of Leno’s older fans, but Fallon’s reception was a surprise.

Thursday night’s top two shows — Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy — lead ABC to win the ratings race. Ratings for CBS’s March Madness coverage were down by more than 30% from last year.

Big audiences for CBS’s Survivor and the second half of Fox’s American Idol lead to a ratings tie between the networks Wednesday night.

In a battle of reality competitions, NBC’s The Voice finished first on Monday among viewers 18-49, while the season premiere of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars topped the night among households. The Voice averaged a 4.0 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, the top program of the night in the demo and up 8 percent from a 3.7 last week.

Fox’s American Idol moved into its new 9 p.m. timeslot last night, and it matched last week’s series low. It seemed to knock new timeslot rival Grey’s Anatomy for a loop, as the veteran drama also tied a series low. Grey’s won the hour with a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating, off 12% from last week. Idol finished right behind with a 2.2, even to last week. The show will air for an hour in the slot for another week.

NEW YORK (AP) — Fueled by the Oscars, ABC’s “Good Morning America” is celebrating its most-watched week in nearly 23 years. The Nielsen company said Thursday that ABC’s morning show […]

ABC’s Modern Family fell slightly week to week but was still easily the No. 1 show on Wednesday for the third straight week. Family averaged a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating, down a tenth from last week. It finished 32% ahead of the No. 2 show, CBS’s Survivor, which posted a 2.5, though that may be slightly inflated. The network had preemptions and delays in the 8 p.m. hour due to local affiliates’ coverage of SEC and ACC basketball tournaments.

With a smaller lead-in, NBC’s About a Boy saw its rating shrink in its third week on the air. So did its veteran rival in the timeslot, Fox’s New Girl. Boy posted a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating at 9 p.m., off 16% from last week’s 2.5. NBC’s The Voice was still easily the night’s No. 1 show, and Boy finished No. 2 for the evening as NBC won all six half-hours on the night.

CBS won last week with a primetime average of 9.3 million viewers. NBC had 6.7 million viewers, ABC had 5.9 million, Fox had 4.7 million, Univision had 2.7 million, the CW had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1.3 million and Telemundo had 1.1 million.

The court topper’s 8.0 is the best in syndication and represents a 7% household increase since February 2013. Other genre leaders include Dr. Phil, Entertainment Tonight and Wheel of Fortune.

The season finale of ABC’s The Bachelor pulled off a rare feat: Boosting a network other than NBC to No. 1 on Monday night. ABC averaged a 3.4 adults 18-49 rating and 10 share in primetime last night, slightly ahead of NBC’s 3.3/10, as Bachelor finished as the No. 1 program of the night with a 3.8. That was just ahead of NBC’s The Voice, which posted a 3.7 earlier in the night.