ratings

In its season finale, NBC’s Parenthood showed a ratings bump that should secure a third-season order. The drama won its timeslot against new ABC drama Body of Proof for the first time and drew its best rating since September. Parenthood averaged a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating at 10 p.m., up 19% from a 2.1 last week.

On another slow night for broadcast, NBC’s new drama Law & Order: Los Angeles dipped even lower than last week, when it returned from a months-long hiatus with a new look. LOLA averaged a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating at 10 p.m., off 27% from a 1.5 for last week’s two-hour episode and a new series low. The first-year show actually finished fifth in the timeslot, behind even Univision and Telemundo, and its prospects of renewal dimmed further.

Apparently no one was missing Paul Reiser since Mad About You left the air more than a decade ago. His new sitcom, The Paul Reiser Show, debuted to terrible numbers last night on NBC. Reiser averaged a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating at 8:30 p.m., finishing sixth in the timeslot behind even Univision and the CW.

The new ABC sitcom Happy Endings got pretty decent reviews, and it had a pretty decent debut as well, thanks mostly to lead-in Modern Family. Endings averaged a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating at 9:30 p.m. last night, holding 71% of Family‘s 3.8 at 9 p.m.

The second-season premiere of ABC’s Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution wilted compared to season one. The show averaged a 1.4 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m. last night, according to Nielsen overnights, down 46% from the season one premiere last year.

Spanish-language media company Univision Communications is planning to launch a telenovela cable channel in the U.S. during the third quarter and a sports and likely also a 24/7 news network next year to offer its Spanish-language audience additional content outlets, EVP-COO Randy Falco said Wednesday.

The syndicated AA ratings now include viewing of multiple runs of the same show, resulting in double-digit boosts to numbers in many cases. Among the bigger beneficiaries are Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, Swift Justice with Nancy Grace, Don’t Forget the Lyrics, Family Feud and a number of off-net sitcoms.

Last night’s shocking result on American Idol was seen by fewer people than last week, but Fox still dominated the night. Idol averaged a 6.1 adults 18-49 rating, off 8% from last week’s 6.6. It was easily the night’s highest-rated show, well ahead of CBS’s The Big Bang Theory with a 3.6, and the results are getting a lot of buzz online this morning.

The premiere of Breaking In did pretty well for Fox last night, as most shows that air after big hit American Idol tend to do. Breaking averaged a 3.5 adults 18-49 rating at 9:30 p.m., retaining about half its Idol lead-in. But the show will have to maintain around that rating next week to be considered a success.

Monday night’s NCAA men’s basketball final between Butler and UConn dipped 17% from the previous year. Considering what a painfully sloppy game it was to watch, CBS is probably glad it didn’t dip more. The championship drew a 13.3 household rating, according to Nielsen metered markets, compared to a 16 rating for last year’s contest between Duke and Butler.

Airing opposite the NCAA men’s basketball title game on CBS, ABC’s Dancing with the Stars slid 12% in its third week to a 4.6 adults 18-49 rating. That’s still a strong rating, putting it second behind the game for the night. And Stars actually pulled its biggest audience ever against the annual CBS broadcast, 21.4 million viewers, though that was down more than a million from last week.

The latest country music awards show boosted CBS to an easy victory last night against original competition on ABC and NBC. The Academy of Country Music Awards averaged a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 11 p.m., up 3% over last year’s telecast. The ACMAs won all but one half-hour during the broadcast, falling behind NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice by 0.2 during its final half hour.

The much-hyped musical episode of Grey’s Anatomy gave the long-running ABC show a ratings boost, even against a good premiere for the new Fox show Mobbed.  Grey’s averaged a 4.8 adults 18-49 rating in the 9 p.m. timeslot last night, up 33% over last week’s rating, when the show faced NCAA basketball games.

In the midst of what may be the tightest race in years in the broadcast late-night time period, the unlikely winner continues to be ABC’s Nightline — now the strongest among key younger viewers. ABC says for the first time in any quarter, Nightline is the No. 1 show in the 18-49 category. In addition, the show is the best in total viewers and adults 25-54, where it has claimed top-dog status for some time.

American Idol dipped a bit from last week but it still dominated, lifting Fox to an easy victory last night. Idol averaged a 7.5 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., down 5% from the previous week. Fox still managed to better the combined total of the other Big Five networks for the night, however, and Idol more than doubled the rating for the evening’s No. 2 show, CBS’s Criminal Minds, which averaged a 3.4.

With a strong lead-in from Dancing with the Stars, ABC’s new drama Body of Proof notched a promising premiere last night. Proof averaged a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating in the 10 p.m. timeslot, dominating the timeslot over a pair of second-year dramas. NBC’s Parenthood and CBS’s The Good Wife tied for second at a 1.9 apiece.

PUT levels fell markedly as college hoops and more daylight conspire to lower syndicated viewing. While all the genres took hits, talk shows recorded a number of new season lows.

ABC’s Dancing with the Stars didn’t miss a step in its second week, seeing only a small decline in adults 18-49 and total viewers while leading ABC to a nightly win. Stars averaged a 5.1 adults 18-49 rating from 8 to 10 p.m., down 4% from a 5.3 for last week’s premiere.

With a big boost from basketball, CBS earned an easy victory last night. The network averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating and 9 share in primetime, 45% ahead of second-place Fox, which averaged a 2.2/6 with a mix of originals and reruns.

The stickiness index, which measures engagement, shows some wide disparities with ratings rankings. For example, Univision’s El Triunfo del Amor, is No. 5 in stickiness, but No. 82 in ratings.

American Idol dominated the mostly original ratings competition last night, boosting Fox to an easy win on an evening where it more than tripled runner-up CBS’s average.

Broadcast ratings erosion continues to tug at the big networks — down double-digit percentages, while cable networks are up slightly — through roughly three-quarters of the 2010-2011 TV season.

Multi-screen media measurement firm Rentrak Corp. today announced a multiyear agreement with Bonten Media Group for Rentrak’s  StationView Essentials electronic measurement service. Bonten will use StationView Essentials at its Tri-Cities, […]

Oprah Winfrey scored her best ratings in nearly six years with Monday’s show during which Winfrey revealed that she had a half-sister she never knew. The installment of Winfrey’s daytime talker averaged a 9.6 household rating (according to metered market weighted averages). That’s the highest episode since Winfrey’s post-Oscar party installment on Feb. 28, 2005.

A NATPE panel considers how technology is changing means for measuring TV audiences, and how those changes could influence both content and advertisers.

During the three-hour block beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, the new Oprah Winfrey Network averaged 1 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen Co. figures.

Cable networks have been challenging broadcasters’ hold on TV viewers for years, but the big networks’ lackluster fall is proof of a new parity. Nielsen figures show the Big 4 and basic cable gained 1% in 2010 as overall viewing continues to rise to a record 34 hours a week. But the fall season has been less kind: Fox is down 15% and ABC is off 5%, offsetting smaller gains by CBS and NBC.

Ratings are the best revenge. And if these numbers hold, “Conan” had a very sweet debut for TBS. Conan’s new TBS show scored a 2.8 rating among Nielsen’s 56 metered markets. In contrast, Leno earned a 2.7 rating, Letterman drew 2.5, and Kimmel received a 1.7.

New contract with Midcontinent Communications provides additional intelligence on set-top box viewing behavior.