Idol Lifts Fox, but Human Target Squanders Lead-In Support

THE PROGRAMMING INSIDERThursday, February 3, 2011 Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:Hefty Victory for Fox, but Human Target Squanders Idol Lead-in Support Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest TV Trivia Time: Don’t Book ‘em, Danno! ________________________________________________________________________________ Prime-Time Metered Market Wednesday Ratings:Hefty Victory for Fox, but Human Target Squanders Idol Lead-in Support Wednesday 2/02/11Note: Four markets are excluded from the following averages: Dallas, Dayton, Austin and Honolulu. HH Rtg/Shr Fox 10.9/16CBS 5.9/ 9NBC 4.9/ 8ABC 4.5/ 7CW 0.8/ 1 ---------- -Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening (Wednesday, 2/03/10):NBC: +36, Fox: +18, CW: no change, ABC: - 2, CBS: -33 ---------- -Yesterday’s Winners:American Idol (Fox), Criminal Minds R (CBS), Modern Family R (ABC), Blue Bloods (CBS) -Yesterday’s Losers (excluding repeats):Live to Dance (CBS), Minute to Win It – 8 p.m. (NBC), Cougar Town (ABC), Off the Map (ABC) ---------- -Ratings Breakdown:Fox stood well above the Wednesday competition thanks to still killer American Idol. But not even the support of Idol could push relocated 9 p.m. occupant Human Target past a repeat of CBS’ competing Criminal Minds in the overnights. A one-hour edition of American Idol opened the evening for Fox with a hefty 15.8 rating/24 share at 8 p.m., which beat the four competing networks combined by 28 percent. That led into Human Target, which dipped to second overall in the 9 p.m. hour with a 5.9/10. Comparably, retention for Human Target out of the 8:30 p.m. portion of American Idol (16.4/24) was only 36 percent. Although Human Target could be poised for time period victory among adults 18-49, a repeat of aforementioned Criminal Minds won the 9 p.m. hour with a 6.6/10. Earlier in the evening on CBS, Paula Abdul on Live to Dance cannot compete with her old show, with a distant third-place 3.8/ 6 at 8 p.m. At 10 p.m. on the Eye net, week three of the four-week Blue Bloods Wednesday 10 p.m. test won the time period with a 7.5/12. Comparably, Blue Bloods built from the 9:30 p.m. portion of the Criminal Minds encore (6.7/10) by 12 percent. As a reminder, upcoming Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior moves into the Wednesday 10 p.m. hour (out of its parent series) on Feb. 16. Blue Bloods returns to Friday at 10 p.m. on Feb. 11. Over at NBC, Minute to Win It stumbled opposite American Idol at 8 p.m., with a fourth-place 3.3/ 5 in the overnights. But a 9 p.m. installment of the game show (minus the Idol competition) perked up to a still fourth-place 5.3/ 8 at 9 p.m. That led into veteran Law & Order: SVU at a second-place 6.1/10 at 10 p.m. Although SVU will likely beat CBS’ Blue Bloods among adults 18-49, it trailed the Tom Selleck crime solver by 15 percent in the overnights. ABC populated the 8-9:30 p.m. block with repeats of two episodes of underrated The Middle (8 p.m. - #2, 4.6/ 7; 8:30 p.m. - #2, 4.3/ 6) and Modern Family (#3: 6.1/ 9), which deserves positive mention for building by 42 percent from the 8:30 p.m. encore edition of The Middle. But an original installment of hiatus-bound (but already renewed) Cougar Town dipped to fourth, with a 4.7/ 7 in the overnights at 9:30 p.m. And recently introduced Shonda Rhimes drama Off the Map remains a bust, with a last-place 3.8/ 6 at 10 p.m. The last thing ABC needed was another edition of soapy Grey’s Anatomy set in the jungle. As a reminder, upcoming ABC Matthew Perry sitcom Mr. Sunshine steps into the Wednesday 9:30 p.m. time period (out of Modern Family) next Wednesday. Let’s just hope that subsequent episodes are better than the lackluster pilot. Last, and very least, were repeats of Smallville (#5: 0.9/ 1) and compatible Supernatural (#5: 0.8/ 1) on The CW, which air in originals tomorrow evening. Source: Nielsen Media Research data (R = repeat) Ratings Box:What’s Hot/What’s Not -Growing Shameless on Showtime:Episode four of new Showtime drama Shameless rose to 1.11 million viewers at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Sunday, Jan. 30, with an additional 345,000 for the repeat at 11 p.m. ET/PT. For the night, Showtime is reporting 1.45 million viewer for Shamelesss, which is 12 percent above the 1.3 million for its debut (original and repeat) on Jan. 9. Sniff, sniff…I smell a renewal coming. -National Ratings in Syndication Update:What follows are the final national ratings in syndication (first-run and off-network) for the week of January 17 based on AA (average audience) household rating: Wheel of Fortune (CBS Television Distribution): 8.0 rating, Jeopardy (CBS): 6.5, Two and a Half Men (Warner Bros.): 6.2, Oprah (CBS): 5.0, Judge Judy (CBS): 4.7, Entertainment Tonight (CBS): 4.4, Family Guy (Twentieth Television): 4.2, Wheel of Fortune – Weekend (CBS) and Two and a Half Men – Weekend B (Twentieth): 3.5 each, Two and a Half Men – Weekend A (Twentieth): 3.3, Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC Universal): 3.2, Inside Edition (CBS): 3.1, Live with Regis & Kelly (Disney-ABC) and Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS): 3.0 each, Dr. Phil (CBS), Criminal Minds (CBS) and Seinfeld Weekend (Sony Pictures Television): 2.9 each, Dr. Oz (SPT) and Seinfeld (SPT): 2.8 each, My Wife and Kids (Disney-ABC): 2.7 Source: Nielsen Media Research data_____________________________________________________________________________ On the Air Tonight:Prime-Time Programming Options Thursday 2/03/11 ABC: 8:00 p.m. Wipeout 9:00 p.m. Grey’s Anatomy 10:00 p.m. Private Practice CBS: 8:00 p.m. the Big Bang Theory 8:30 p.m. $#*! My Dad Says 9:00 p.m. CSI10:00 p.m. The Mentalist NBC: 8:00 p.m. Community 8:30 p.m. Perfect Couples 9:00 p.m. The Office 9:30 p.m. Parks and Recreation 10:00 p.m. 30 Rock10:30 p.m. Outsourced Fox: 8:00 p.m. American Idol 9:00 p.m. Bones CW 8:00 p.m. The Vampire Diaries 9:00 p.m. Nikita ______________________________________________________________________ TV Tidbits:Notes of Interest -CBS Renews NCIS:CBS has issued its first official renewal for the 2011-12 season: NCIS. Primetime’s most-watched scripted drama (and spin-off from JAG) has been picked-up for a ninth season. -Beavis and Butt-Head Returns to MTV:Animated series never officially end; they come back at a later time. And the next one to be resurrected is MTV classic Beavis and Butt-Head, the tale of two bored high school students that aired from 1993 to 1997 and spun-off theatrical Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, a video game and a comic book series. The revival is expected to begin later this year with 30 new episodes. -NBC Scheduling Update:The return of freshman NBC drama The Event, which has been on hiatus since December, is now slated for Monday, March 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT (instead of the previously announced February 28). It leads into surprise hit Harry’s Law. Critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights, which is currently airing on DirecTV, will return on NBC for its final season on Friday, April 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. It replaces Who Do You Think You Are?, which will have wrapped up its season by then. And Celebrity Apprentices, which launches its new season in the Sunday 9-11 p.m. block on March 6, will expand to three-hours for its season-finale on May 8. -PI Feedback Challenge – Super Bowl XLV and Glee:Want to chime in on how many viewers and adults 18-49 will be tuning in for Super Bowl XVL and Glee on Fox this Sunday? Click on http://www.freewebs.com/pifeedback/pifeedback_daily_special.html -Animal Planet Update:Animal Planet has announced third season renewals for Confessions: Animal Hoarding and Pit Bulls and Parolees, with the new seasons slated to launch in third and fourth quarter, respectively. The season two finale of Pit Bulls and Parolees rose to a record performance on Saturday, Jan. 22, with 1.3 million viewers, while the most recent performance of Confessions: Animal Hoarding (946,000 viewers on Friday, Jan. 28) also reached a new zenith. -Lessons From the Mountain by Mary McDonough:Since I have never been shy hawking my all-time favorite series, feel-good family drama The Waltons, I am pleased to announce a book written by Mary McDonough (a.k.a. Erin), which I just received an advanced copy of. Titled Lessons From the Mountain: What I Learned From Erin Walton, Mary fondly reminisces about her experiences as middle daughter Erin, giving us an inner look at what it was like for a child actor on a hit series and inspiring us with her personal triumph. Kensington Publishing Corp. will be officially launching the book in April, which is loaded with tales of Mary and her well populated cast-mates, including Richard Thomas (John Boy), Ralph Waite (John), Michael Learned (Olivia), Jon Walmsley (Jason), Judy Norton (Mary-Ellen), Eric Scott (Ben), David W. Harper (Jim-Bob), Kami Cotler (Elizabeth) and the late, and great, Ellen Corby and Will Geer. Good Lord! If you liked The Waltons (admit it…you did), you will love this book! Stay tuned for a friendly reminder in April on its official release. For more on Mary McDonough, click on http://www.marymcdonough.com/ __________________________________________________________________ TV Trivia Time:Don’t Book ‘em, Danno Four of the following five TV characters worked for the police department. Which one did not? a) Suzanne “Pepper” Andersonb) Bill Gannonc) Carl Kanisky d) Harvey Lacey e) Janice Wentworth The answer to yesterday’s question… Who played the owner of the St. Gregory Hotel in the pilot episode of ABC Aaron Spelling drama Hotel? a) Tallullah Bankheadb) Joan Bennett c) Joan Crawford d) Bette Davise) Barbara Stanwyck Is: d) Bette Davis, who suffered a stroke shortly after filming the pilot and never returned. Anne Baxter stepped in to replace Davis, but passed after three seasons into the series run. -Current kudos goes to:Gerry Bixenspan, John Brooker, Larry Collins, Kay Copeland, John Ferlazzo, Renee Foley, George Gardner, Isabelle Gauvry, Maureen Goldman, Geoffrey Gordon, Bob Ingersoll, David Jackino, Deb Kainer, Tom Kilgallon, Synda Kollman, Steve Kurtzer, Danny Leclair, Rick Locke, Jim Moore, Greg Phelan, David Primuth, Gordon Purcell, Stephan Rafi, Patti Rodriguez, David Ruckman, Mary Ryan, Anthony Salerno, Michelle Stanton, Andrew Stearn, Michael Stern, Joe Swaney, Carol Teichman, Trenna Underhill

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Idol Lifts Fox, but Human Target Squanders Lead-In Support

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