TV Ratings Thursday: ABC Edges CBS; Fringe Recovers; Bones Beats FlashForward

Scoreboard
Rating/Share: Adults 18-49	4.0/11	3.8/10	2.5/7	2.4/6	1.7/4	1.3/3
Rating/Share: Adults 18-34	3.8/11	2.4/7	2.0/6	2.6/7	1.9/5	1.4/4
Total Viewers (million)	10.972	15.220	7.858	5.438	3.541	3.292

Blame it on the World Series. Fringe recovered from its heart stopping 1.7 rating last Thursday to a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating last night, close to its season average.

The post World Series scheduling confusion for Fox seemed to clear up last night as their line up substantially recovered. Bones increased 12% from last week to a 2.9 adults 18-49 rating. Fringe was up 29% to a 2.2 rating. Still worrying for renewal, but back to its season average.

FlashForward lost to Bones for the first time, and stayed at its series low 2.6  adults 18-49 rating, flat vs. last week. That's borderline for renewal or cancelation. The rest of ABC's lineup fared better. Grey's Anatomy was up 6% to a 5.4 rating, and Private Practice jumped 15% to a 3.9 rating, its best since the season premiere. What were the doctors up to last night?

CBS generally improved, as Survivor was up 8% to a 4.0 rating, CSI rose 14% to a 4.0 rating. Both Survivor and CSI had their highest average audiences of the season, and their second best demo ratings. Only The Mentalist was down slightly (3%) to a 3.5 rating.

NBC's early lineup slipped slightly. Community down 9% to a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating. Parks & Recreation down 5% to a 2.1 rating. The Office fell 2% to a 4.0 rating, and 30 Rock was down 3% with a 2.9 rating. The Jay Leno Show held even with last Thursday at a 1.6 rating.

CW's Vampire Diaries stayed even with last week with a 2.0 rating in adults 18-49, just behind the NBC comedies. It had a 3.0 rating for women 18-34, that topped its hour may have won its hour, I am checking. Supernatural was up to a 1.3/1.4 rating for adults 18-49 from a 1.2 last week. It tallied a 1.6 rating for women 18-34. Note: The CW affiliate in San Francisco aired the 49ers/Bears game last night. Supernatural didn't air at all in the SF market, its numbers will likely fall in the final ratings. Vampire Diaries aired after the game, so it's not clear how its final ratings will fare.

In Late-Night Local People Meters Thursday night:

• Conan O'Brien (0.9/4 in 18-49 in local people meters) tied CBS's Late Show (0.9/4) in Nielsen's 24 local markets with People Meters.
• At 12:35 a.m., Jimmy Fallon (0.4/3 in 18-49 in local people meters) trailed CBS's Late Late Show (0.5/3).

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You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.

Definitions:

Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.

Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.

Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)

Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.

For more information see Numbers 101.