TV Ratings Thursday: 'American Idol', 'Community' & 'Grey's Anatomy' Hit Lows, 'The Big Bang Theory' Slides + 'Parks & Recreation' Up

 NOTE: CBS programming was pre-empted/delayed in approximately 3% of the country due to ACC and SEC conference basketball tournaments.  Ratings for CBS are tentative and likely to change

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

Adult 18-49 usage last night was down -9% from 8-9pm and -6% from 8-10pm versus last Thursday

On CBS, The Big Bang Theory earned a season-low tying 4.5 adults 18-49 rating down a full ratings point from the  5.5 for its last original.  Two and a Half Men scored a 3.3, down six tenths from its last original's 3.9 adults 18-49. Person Of Interest garnered a 2.9, up a tenth from last week's 2.8 among adults 18-49. Elementary was even with its last original, which earned a 2.4 on February 22

On FOX,  American Idol scored a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating, down six tenths from last week’s 3.6. This is an all-time low for a regularly scheduled edition   Glee earned a 2.0 adults 18-49 rating down four tenths from last week's 2.4

On ABC, Grey's Anatomy was the only new program and earned a series low 2.6, down half a ratings point after its last original's 3.1.

On NBC, Community garnered a series-low 1.0, down half a ratings point from last week's 1.5 adults 18-49 rating.. The Office earned a 1.9, down a tenth after its last original's 2.0. Parks and Recreation earned a 1.6, up two tenths from its last original's 1.4 adults 18-49 rating 1600 Penn earned a 1.0, up a tenth after last week's  0.9 among adults 18-49.

On The CW, The Vampire Diaries earned a 1.1, down two tenths after its last original's 1.3.  Beauty And The Beast was even with its last original's 0.5.

Overnight ratings for Thursday, March 14, 2013:

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," 2.5/6; CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," 2.7/7; and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 2.0/5 with an encore.

* In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 Wednesday results were: > "> The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,> "> 0.7/3; "Late Show," 0.7/3; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 0.8/4 with an encore.

* From 12:35-1:05 a.m. ET Wednesday night, ABC's "Nightline" averaged a 1.3/4 in metered-market households and a 0.5/3 in 18-49 in the Local People Meters.

* From 12:35-1:35 a.m. ET, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (1.3/5 in metered-market households) tied CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (1.3/4). In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Late Night" (0.5/3 in 18-49) topped "Late Late Show" (0.4/2).

* At 1:35 a.m., "Last Call with Carson Daly" averaged a 0.9/4 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.