ratings

In the week ending Oct. 13, talk shows were all either flat or up from the previous week, while the entertainment magazines were all either flat or down.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is still far from a hit, but the new comedy saw a ratings boost days after getting a full-season order from Fox. Brooklyn rose 7% versus last week, to a 1.6 adults 18-49 rating in the 8:30 p.m. timeslot. It improved 14% over its lead-in, new comedy Dads, which was off a tenth from last week to a 1.4. Brooklyn was Fox’s No. 2 show on Tuesday night, finishing just 0.2 behind the network’s top program, New Girl, which drew a 1.8 at 9 p.m.

CBS’s long-dominant Monday night schedule has shown surprising weakness, and the network has already made some moves to shore up the night. NBC made it a big priority to establish a new comedy schedule on Thursday nights with shows starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Hayes, but they haven’t caught on.

Just how dominant has NBC been on Monday nights this season? The network has led every single half hour of every Monday, including last night. The combination of The Voice and The Blacklist, the night’s two highest-rated programs, lifted NBC to its fifth straight Monday victory.

Peyton Manning’s much-hyped return to Indianapolis, where he played the first 14 seasons of his storied NFL career, produced ratings records for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. The game between Manning’s current team, the Broncos, and his former one, the Colts, averaged a 17.3 household rating from 8:30 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. The game peaked with a 19.0 rating from 9:30 to 10 p.m. That marked a season high for SNF and the fourth-best overnight rating in the franchise’s history, behind two games from last year and the season opener from 2010.

Expect a full-season order for The Millers later today. The new CBS comedy continued to post solid numbers, growing week to week in its third outing. “Millers” averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating last night, up 7% from a 3.0 last week. And that was despite its strong lead-in, The Big Bang Theory, actually sliding a tenth from last week, to a 5.0. Millers has shown decent retention out of Bang, but just as importantly, it’s not seeing the huge week-to-week falloffs that so many other new shows have experienced this season.

Through three games, Fox’s League Championship Series coverage is up 26% year-over-year, with game 3 up 37% from 2012.

The popular “Toy Story” franchise boosted ABC’s ratings on Wednesday night. A Halloween special starring the gang of Pixar cut-ups, Toy Story of Terror!, averaged a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m. last night, posting the network’s best rating in the timeslot since November 2011. Among kids 2-11 the special did even better, no surprise. It averaged a 5.7, the network’s best rating in the timeslot since 2007 and broadcast’s highest-rated animated special since November 2011. Toy helped ABC to a three-way tie for No. 1 on Wednesday night with Fox, which carried game four of the American League Championship Series, and CBS.

What do the wealthy young people watch? Apparently, a lot of Modern Family, Big Bang Theory and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Counting the first three weeks of the fall TV season, those are the top-rated broadcast shows among upscale young adults. In this context, “upscale young adults” are people in the key 18-49 age demographic in homes with a yearly income of $100,000 or more.

NBC won another Tuesday night on the strength of The Voice, though the network’s veteran reality show The Biggest Loser posted its lowest-ever debut rating. Voice averaged a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating, easily the highest-rated program of the night. The evening’s No. 2 program, NCIS, was well behind with a 3.0.

At the top of the talk list, Dr. Phil and Live with Kelly and Michael tied for first place honors, but neither was up from the week before. Among the closely watched daytime rookies, Queen Latifah was the No. 1 new talker for the third consecutive week, holding steady from the previous frame.

The 16.1 million people who watched the AMC series Sunday shattered the show’s previous record of 12.4 million, which was set for April’s final episode of the third season. CBS won the week in primetime, averaging 9.2 million viewers. NBC had 8.4 million, Fox had 7.5 million, ABC had 7 million, Univision had 3.2 million, the CW had 1.7 million, Telemundo had 1.14 million and Ion Television had 1.05 million.

Girls are apparently stronger than men. CBS’s 2 Broke Girls moved into a new timeslot last night, replacing the canceled We Are Men at 8:30 p.m. and showing big improvements over Men’s numbers last week. Girls averaged a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating at 8:30 p.m., up from a 1.9 for Men last week. In fact, Girls improved over the 2.3 it posted in its old 9 p.m. timeslot last week as well.

The networks have experienced a slight improvement in primetime viewing this fall, but the landscape is still treacherous for new shows, several of which have been pulled after just two episodes.

Nielsen’s latest round of premiere week measurements show strong growth for promising freshmen, ratings boosts from last fall and CBS’s unstoppable returning comedy The Big Bang Theory besting even Sunday Night Football.

Dramas and reality shows were no match for NBC’s NFL coverage or Fox’s MLB playoffs Sunday. Live sports dominated the night, according to early ratings from 56 markets. According to the metered markets, Sunday night’s Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins was not only the No. 1 telecast of the evening, the game was also the strongest performance against Fox’s MLB League Championship series since 1997, NBC tweeted.

There were some alarmingly low numbers on broadcast last night for a number of new shows, while veteran drama Glee rose to a one-year high on Fox as it paid tribute to the late actor Cory Monteith. ABC’s new spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland drew a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., finishing third in its timeslot behind CBS’s The Big Bang Theory (the night’s top show with a 4.9) and The Millers (retaining an impressive 94% of last week’s debut with a 3.1) and Fox’s The X Factor.

No returning series in any daypart is off to a hotter start this fall than ABC’s daytime talkshow The Chew, which gobbled up more series records in key demos last week. Now in its third season, the food-themed program that replaced All My Children in 2011 averaged 2.6 million viewers for the week of Sept. 30-Oct. 4 — up 15% vs. the comparable week a year ago, according to Nielsen.

Every single program on the Big Four took a hit last night, seeing declines from last week. That included two notable new shows, ABC’s Super Fun Night and NBC’s Ironside. Fun slid 22% from last week, from a 3.2 to a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating. The show retained 66% of lead-in Modern Family’s rating, compared to 76% last week. Some of the decline could certainly be attributed to the fact that Family was also off, falling 10% from last week to a 3.8. Family was easily the night’s top show.

Ratings service Rentrak has signed a multi-year StationView Essentials contract with Media Solutions, a local advertising agency in Sacramento, Calif. The deal includes the Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles […]

Overall, CBS won the week, averaging 10.9 million viewers. NBC, in second place, had 8.7 million and won among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers advertisers pay a premium to reach. ABC had 7.4 million, Fox had 4.8 million, Univision had 3.4 million, the CW had 1.4 million and ION Television had 1.2 million.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is still delivering good if not great numbers for ABC on Tuesday, while the network’s new comedies are struggling after decent debuts two weeks ago. Last night The Goldbergs fell behind Fox’s rival New Girl for the first time. Lead-out Trophy Wife was even to last week, a notable achievement, but its rating remains low. Goldbergs averaged a 2.0 adults 18-49 rating, down 9% from last week and off by more than a third from its debut. Girl drew a 2.1 in the same 9 p.m. slot, up 11% from last week.

This year the most buzzed-about new shows are living up to their pre-premiere hype. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Blacklist, the two dramas that got the most attention heading into the fall season, are easily the top new shows of the fall. And three comedies with familiar stars and decent buzz round out the rest of fall’s top five.

Entertain magazines get a boost from their Emmy coverage, while Modern Family’s off-net debut is the biggest syndication premiere in more than 10 years.

ABC has already canceled one new drama this season, and another is struggling as well. Last night the network’s 10 p.m. show Betrayal slid 27% from last week’s already-low premiere, to a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating. The show got less lead-in support from Revenge, ABC’s 9 p.m. drama, which fell 17% from last week to a 1.9. Betrayal bowed to a 1.5 last week, the third-worst rating for any new show.

ABC’s Scandal started the new season just as it ended the last one, with record ratings. The hot drama debuted to a series-high 3.6 adults 18-49 rating last night at 10 p.m., up 13 percent over its then-record season finale last May, which drew a 3.2. Scandal soared by an impressive 71% over last fall’s 2.1 premiere, and it finished as the No. 2 show of the night on broadcast, behind only CBS’s The Big Bang Theory (5.0).

Rebel Wilson’s much-hyped new comedy Super Fun Night got off to a good start last night behind Modern Family. Fun averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating at 9:30 p.m., retaining 76% of Family’s 4.2 at 9. The 76% retention was the highest percentage retention behind Family for any new comedy in four years. The rating ties Fun with The Golbergs for the No. 2 comedy premiere this season, behind CBS’s The Crazy Ones (3.9). Fun was also the No. 2 show of the night behind Family.

Each of the four biggest broadcast networks had some carefully nurtured initial successes in the new TV season’s first week. But NBC was alone in seeing more primetime viewers than it had during the same week in 2012, and the increase was 19%. Among the 18-49 demographic that many advertisers seek, NBC had the widest first-week margin of victory in 16 years.

For the week ending Sept. 22, many chat shows posted week-to-week or year-to-year gains. Other strong performers included Judge Judy and freshman Queen Latifah.

Last week’s big premiere for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did not hold. The new ABC drama lost a big chunk of its premiere audience in its second episode last night. S.H.I.E.L.D. averaged a 3.1 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., down 34% from a 4.7 last week. The show finished third in its timeslot behind NBC’s The Voice, the night’s top show with a 4.6 from 8 to 10 p.m., and CBS’s “NCIS (3.4, off only 6% from last week). That was still ABC’s best performance in the timeslot in two years.

NBC remains dominant on Monday, and CBS may have a few issues with its new shows on the night. NBC’s The Voice was last night’s top-rated show with a 4.6 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., off 10% from last week’s strong debut. Lead-out The Blacklist continued to post strong ratings at 10 p.m., averaging a 3.6 for its second episode and finishing as the night’s No. 2 show behind Voice. That was down only 5% from last week, a good sign for the new drama.

On a night where every returning broadcast scripted series saw year-to-year declines, ABC may have another turkey in the 10 p.m. hour. The new drama Betrayal bowed to a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating in the timeslot, losing 38% of its 2.4 lead-in from Revenge. ABC has struggled in this hour for the past two years, since Brothers and Sisters went off the air. Betrayal was well below the 2.1 that 666 Park Avenue premiered to last year in the same timeslot.

ABC had the top-rated show of the night, and Fox got a promising premiere for a new spinoff. But CBS’s consistency throughout primetime boosted the network to a win on the first Friday of the new TV season. CBS averaged a 1.6 adults 18-49 rating and 5 share in primetime, just edging No. 2 ABC at 1.4/5. It was the second straight nightly win for CBS, which also took Thursday evening.

There were plenty of original shows on broadcast last night but CBS still finished first on the strength of its repeats. Two reruns of The Big Bang Theory finished as the night’s top shows, with the 8 p.m. edition averaging a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating, and the 9 p.m. edition rising to a 2.2. Week two of Fox’s The X Factor averaged a series-low 1.9 in the 8 p.m. hour, down from a 2.2 for last week’s episode, though that aired two hours instead of one. The first hour of last week’s Factor drew a 2.0.

TV programmers frustrated that shows watched on tablets and smartphones have been invisible to Nielsen’s ratings may finally get a solution — next year. Next week, Nielsen will formally announce to clients a timetable for a long-awaited development: In September 2014, the firm is aiming to be able to attribute linear TV viewed on smartphones and tablets to its national TV ratings.

CBS’s daytime panel show, entering its fourth season, scores its largest weekly audience to date and matches The View in the key demo.