TV Ratings Thursday: 'American Idol' Down But Wins Night by Huge Margin, 'Glee' Rises, 'Last Resort,' '30 Rock' & 'Beauty and the Beast' Up

FOX won the night in adults 18-49 and in Total Viewers.

On FOX, American Idol  earned a 5.1, down 6% from last week's 5.6 adults 18-49 rating, but still the top program of the night by a whopping 65 percent. Glee returned to a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating up 35%  from a 2.0 for its most recent episode on December 13 when it followed The X Factor. Your predictions were a little pessimistic.

On ABC, the finale of Last Resort scored a 1.2 up 20% from last week's 1.0 adults 18-49 rating. Grey's Anatomy notched a3.0 adults 18-49 rating, even with last week.

On NBC, 30 Rock earned a 1.4, up 8% from last week's  1.3 adults 18-49 rating. Parks and Recreation scored a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating down 11% from last week's 1.9. The Office garnered a 2.0 among adults 18-49, down 5% from last week's 2.1. 1600 Penn earned a 1.3, up 8% from last week's 1.2. Rock Center With Brian Williams tied its season low with a 0.8, down 27% from last week's 1.1.

On The CW, The Vampire Diaries earned a 1.3, down 7% from last week's 1.4 adults 18-49 rating. Beauty & the Beast returned with a 0.7 adults 18-49 rating, up 17% from a 0.6 for its last original on December 13.

Late-night ratings are below the primetime data.

Overnight ratings for Thursday, January 24, 2013:

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via press note:

In Late-Night Metered Markets Thursday night:

In Nielsen's 56 metered markets, household results were: "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," 2.6/7; CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," 2.2/6 with an encore; and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 2.9/8.
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> * In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 results were: > "> The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,> "> 0.8/4; "Late Show," 0.6/3 with an encore; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 1.2/6.
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> * From 12:35-1:05 a.m. ET, ABC's "Nightline" averaged a 1.9/6 in metered-market households and a 0.8/5 in 18-49 in the Local People Meters.
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> * From 12:35-1:35 a.m. ET, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (1.3/4 in metered-market households with an encore telecast) beat CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (1.1/4 with an encore). In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Late Night" (0.5/3 in 18-49 with an encore) topped "Late Late Show" (0.3/2 with an encore).
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> * At 1:35 a.m., "Last Call with Carson Daly" averaged a 0.8/3 in metered-market households with an encore and a 0.3/3 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with local people meters.

NOTE: All ratings are "live plus same day" from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise indicated.

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2013 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
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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 baseball 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. 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.