| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 4.5/14 | 1.8/6 | 1.7/5 | 1.4/4 | 1.3/4 | 1.3/4 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 3.2/11 | 1.2/4 | 1.1/4 | 1.5/4 | 1.1/1 | 1.1/4 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 14.00 | 6.73 | 6.94 | 3.12 | 3.36 | 3.80 |
St. Patrick's Day night offered very little in the way of new programming with CBS running repeats other than a new Gary Unmarried and ABC running all repeats except for Ugly Betty and what seems likely to be the series finale of Scrubs which was down 20% from last week. It doesn't really matter since it has already been canceled, but Ugly Betty was down even more, 29% to its lowest ratings ever for an original episode not aired on a Friday.
Fox naturally won the night with American Idol, which was up 5% versus last week with adults 18-49. Versus last year American Idol continues to hold up well, down only 6% with adults 18-49. It's down only 5% with adults 18-34 and total viewers, and down 3% with teens.
Though it was no great shakes for Mercy at 8pm, up against repeats and Ugly Betty at 10pm, Law & Order: SVU led the hour and NBC finished in second place for the night.
At 8pm a new episode of Human Target was down a tenth with adults 18-49 from last week to a 2.3 rating. Considering how the 8pm hour fared for many shows this week, that's not too bad. Especially considering FOX chief Kevin Reilly was expecting Daylight Saving Time to take a toll on Human Target.
Over on the CW America's Next Top Model was up a tick with women 18-34 to a 2.8 rating. Though it won't matter, High Society was up a couple of tenths with women 18-34 to a 1.1 rating.
Details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Sh | Viewers (Millions) |
| 8:00 | FOX | Human Target | 2.3/8 | 7.95 |
| CBS | New Adventures of Old Christine (R) | 1.4/5 | 5.50 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model | 1.6/6 | 3.82 | |
| NBC | Mercy | 1.4/5 | 5.58 | |
| ABC | Scrubs | 1.2/4 | 3.46 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Gary Unmarried | 1.8/6 | 5.89 |
| ABC | The Middle (R) | 1.4/5 | 4.21 | |
| 9:00 | FOX | American Idol | 6.6/19 | 20.05 |
| CBS | Criminal Minds (R) | 1.8/5 | 7.65 | |
| ABC | Modern Family (R) | 1.8/5 | 4.90 | |
| CW | America's Next Top Model | 1.7/5 | 3.65 | |
| NBC | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (R) | |||
| 9:30 | ABC | Cougar Town (R) | 1.3/4 | 3.56 |
| CW | High Society | 0.5/2 | 1.20 | |
| 10:00 | NBC | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | 2.8/8 | 9.52 |
| CBS | CSI: NY (R) | 1.6/5 | 7.47 | |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 1.0/3 | 3.33 |
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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
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.
High Society still performed really badly, but I'm surprised the show didn't have a even bigger drop after the pilot episode.
Thats not Ugly Bettys lowest this season but it is in that timeslot. Ugly Betty once got a 0.9 on Friday. Still airing after repeats didnt help it.
Damn ANTM is strong for the CW, coming in 2nd in the 8:00 hour.
Holy Monkey Balls! NBC in second…well it's mostly reruns
Disappointing that Scrubs went out on such a low note. It should have ended last year or earlier, but I thought they did a pretty good job making this season work, and last nights episode wasn't a bad way to end Scrubs 2.0. Really low for Ugly Betty. Also American Idol seems surprisingly low. The CW was in 2nd place for the 8 hour? ANTM seems to be doing pretty well this cycle, but the shows after are a disaster.
I guess the DST theory is starting to fade out now. Although for Human Target, I'm sure Fox was hoping to pick up a few more people with 2M people from an Old Christine rerun in play.
I wonder if Fox is going to suffer the same withdrawal NBC did once Idol goes off the air. NBC didn't plan for the future once Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, and ER went off the air, and we're seeing the results now. Fox better start getting ready for the famine following the feast.
Human Target's number of viewers seems to be increasing each week, which is a good thing. It continues the trend I'd noticed before its 3-week hiatus, anyway. I'm guessing it'll go back up to at least 2.4 next week, once everyone's sobered up from St. Pat's.
I'm still not sure why daylight savings is such a big deal this late in the week. Shouldn't everyone have switched their clocks by now?
Should I chuckle that NBC is second and the CW beat ABC. Granted most of ABC was reruns.
And how long does this season last? I don't understand why in the third week in March with only really 8 weeks of this season left, the networks continue to run repeats so frequently.
Rob, indeed, it was the lowest ever for any regular time period airing that wasn't on a Friday. I've amended the text.
as i love antm i've to admit that wednesday 8pm slot is the least competitive slot in broadcast tv right now!but cw beat abc last night!i guess they must be happy! high society was pretty stable but i guess it will fall in finals.w
its so sad seeing ugly betty to do so awful!yesterday's episode was so good!
It doesn't look like Human Target had any competition though.
Wow. ABC finished the night behind the CW. There's something you don't see everyday
ABC in sixth place. Now thats a new low
Why is ABC placed in last when it beat UNI in viewers?
I was really disappointed in Ugly Betty's ratings too, but things should go back up again come series finale time. The 4th season has been really good, so at least it's going out on top creatively.
FOX is bringing in X Factor in 2011, will likely pay less for Conan, and is already producing two new cartoons.
That's pretty good news for Human Target, but some shows were still hit by DST, even up against repeats. Gary Unmarried dropped from 6.83 million and a 2.2 in ratings to 5.89 million and a 1.8 in the demo, Scrubs dropped from 4.31 million and a 1.5 to 3.46 million and a 1.2, Mercy dropped from 1.5 to 1.4 in the ratings but lost some 750k viewers (6.33 million to 5.58 million). For Scrubs and Gary, that's a 0.3/0.4 drop in ratings, which, as I posted yesterday, seems typical for DST effects.
Rob, there is a system and since you care a lot about details that don't matter much, I challenge you to figure out why. I'm guessing it will take you about 5 seconds once you look at the table again.
NBC kills Mercy. Once again that is NOT a 8pm show !
Being witness of euthanasia or watcing stories about pedophilia is not for this time slot.
Mercy is a great but very dark show (way more than L&A). It desserve to be at 10pm.
What a waste
I don't think UNI shows up on the charts, but even if it did the chart is ranked by Demo, not by total number of viewers. So I assume ABC would STILL be last
Wow, you know it was a pretty slow night when FOX's incredibly lack luster “Human Target” wins the 8pm hour. I mean aside from the repeats on NBC, CBS, and ABC from 8 – 10 this was a pretty normal Wednesday night. Nothing out of the ordinary.