Due to the nature of live programming the ratings for CBS (NCAA Basketball) are approximate and subject to significant revisions in the final numbers. See below for more information on these Fast Affiliate Ratings.
| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 3.7/11 | 2.7/8 | 1.6/5 | 1.4/4 | 1.4/4 | 0.6/2 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 3.3/11 | 2.7/9 | 1.4/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.0/4 | 0.5/2 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 10.331 | 6.587 | 5.783 | 3.319 | 5.315 | 1.434 |
CBS' First round coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament had an easy time upsetting the Thursday ratings race. While the return of ABC's FlashForward fizzled, dropping to just a 1.9 adults 18-49 rating. NBC's line up of new episodes were all over the map vs. last week, but its nightly 18-49 ratings average was exactly the same.
FlashForward's new episode return FellFlat on Thursday night, down 10% from the 2.1 adults 18-49 rating it ended its fall run with to just a 1.9 rating. On the show's "Now, Or Never" question, "Never" seems to be the early answer.
With all the caveats about measuring live events with these preliminary fast affiliate ratings, the CBS coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament averaged a 3.7 adults 18-49 rating in the 8-11pm primetime segment, that's up 3% from last year's first night fast affiliate ratings, but until we see more accurate time zone adjusted numbers (likely in a CBS press release) I wouldn't make much of either the number or the comparison vs. last season.
NBC had the yin and the yang going last night, as Community was up 11% to a 2.1 adults 18-49 rating, while Parks & Recreation was down 5% to a 2.0 rating. The Office fell 5% to a season low 3.6 rating, but 30 Rock was up 3% to a 3.0 rating. Finally, The Marriage Ref was up 8% to a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating. Note that The Office overran until 9:31pm last night, increasing the likelihood its ratings will be adjusted upward and 30 Rock ratings will be adjusted downward in the final ratings.
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating | 18-49 Share | Viewers Live+SD (Millions) |
| 8:00 | CBS | NCAA Tournament: First Round | 3.3 | 11 | 9.148 |
| NBC | Community | 2.1 | 7 | 5.211 | |
| ABC | FlashForward | 1.9 | 7 | 6.870 | |
| FOX | Bones (repeat) | 1.5 | 5 | 5.883 | |
| CW | The Vampire Diaries (repeat) | 0.5 | 2 | 1.429 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | NCAA Tournament: First Round | 3.7 | 12 | 10.323 |
| NBC | Parks & Recreation | 2.0 | 6 | 4.703 | |
| ABC | FlashForward | 1.8 | 6 | 6.343 | |
| FOX | Bones (repeat) | 1.6 | 5 | 6.609 | |
| CW | The Vampire Diaries (repeat) | 0.5 | 2 | 1.432 | |
| 9:00 | CBS | NCAA Tournament: First Round | 4.1 | 12 | 11.671 |
| NBC | The Office | 3.6 | 10 | 7.630 | |
| ABC | FlashForward | 1.9 | 5 | 6.476 | |
| FOX | Fringe (repeat) | 1.3 | 4 | 4.515 | |
| CW | Supernatural (repeat) | 0.6 | 2 | 1.489 | |
| 9:30 | CBS | NCAA Tournament: First Round | 4.2 | 12 | 11.707 |
| NBC | 30 Rock | 3.0 | 9 | 6.857 | |
| ABC | FlashForward | 2.0 | 6 | 6.502 | |
| FOX | Fringe (repeat) | 1.2 | 3 | 4.253 | |
| CW | Supernatural (repeat) | 0.6 | 2 | 1.384 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | NCAA Tournament: First Round | 3.9 | 11 | 10.505 |
| NBC | The Marriage Ref | 2.9 | 9 | 7.727 | |
| ABC | Private Practice (repeat) | 1.2 | 4 | 4.529 | |
| 10:30 | CBS | NCAA Tournament: First Round | 3.3 | 10 | 8.634 |
| NBC | The Marriage Ref | 2.8 | 8 | 7.392 | |
| ABC | Private Practice (repeat) | 1.0 | 3 | 3.977 |
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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.
Bye bye, FlashForward. It was nice knowing you.
Aww too bad for FlashForward, not surprising but still sad for me
The Mentalist is on ABC now?
The Mentalist is on ABC now? I did not know that!
Pretty crappy ratings for that show.
As expected with Flash Forward. You can't put a show that is struggling story-wise on hiatus for 3 months and think it will retain it's audience
I think that is pretty reasonable for Flash Forward after being gone for so long — lets see how it odes next week. I thought it did a good job of reestablishing itself last night. Wish they would put tseries finale of ugly betty in a better time slot — it did serve ABC well at one point.
FlashForward did hold pretty steady for the two hours. By 9:30 it was up to its best numbers and total viewers went down and then back up. I think its a bad week to judge the show somewhat, cuz I think it would lose some viewers to March Madness.
Pretty much what I expected, bad writing and this super huge hiatus killed the show. Let's hope V won't do the same. But I guess ABC like killing new shows, just like Invasion a few years ago, started off at 15 millions, hiatus, 10, hiatus, 8, cancellation. Way to go, this is working.
Anyway I never really cared, I tuned up because I wondered if they would correct the mistakes.
Bu-bye Flashforward. It is so not coming back. Not only because the ratings are awful, but the re-tooling did nothing to improved it's overall dreariness.
ABC show name error at 10pm corrected. It was a Private Practice repeat.
Well, that was predictable for FF. That's gonna be the end after the season
With the quality and more fast-paced nature of lasts night episodes and with it picking up a tick for the start of the first ep to the end of the last ep. I think there could be a possibility of FlashForward gaining momentum again. That was the first ep I watched since the 5 episode and I felt like I didn't miss anything (because I didn't). To bad for the numbers this week though.
The NBC shows did better than I expected. Wow. Community and P&R bounced back a bit from last week. 30 Rock was up. And The Office down. I do think a lot of NBC's audience are younger men who probably tuned into the basketball tournament.
Flashforward was DOA. I don't know why they didn't lead in with a new “Greys” episode. But they really didn't promote the show at all.
And The Marriage Ref? ugh. I don't get it but I guess it's a successful show for NBC
Shocking that Flash Foward declined..3 months off the air and what did they expect. That show is 1 season and gone.
Was Private Practice on ABC a rerun last night?
Unfortunate but not at all surprising about FF. What does ABC expect?
What happened to The Office? 30 Rock with a 3.0 and Office only pulls a 3.6?
Marriage Ref is a keeper… FlashForward, not so much…
I read some tweets that The Office had an overrun with 30 Rock. 30 Rock's numbers would probably go down
GREAT NIGHT NBC!!!!! The NBC comedies are very good. And funny. With no Survivor or AI, NBC can show it's muscles. Or whatever smaller onew they have. NBC will overtake ABC for third place this season. ABC killed FF. That's there own fault.
NBCs results aren't that surprising compared to last week. Last week there was the idol results show which kicked around both 8pm shows. This week Community bounced back but not to the level of 2 weeks ago (DST effect?) while Parks still dropped .1 from last week. Odd that 30 Rock and Marriage Ref were up but there wasn't really much competition other than basketball for either one so I suppose that could be why.
FF was never going to be up from it's last airing. It got virtually no buzz that it was coming back and people were already leaving in droves when it went off the air.