TV Ratings Sunday: 'GCB' Finale and 'Once' Flat; 'Amazing Race' Finale and 'Desperate Housewives' Up; 'Harry's Law' Falls to Series Low

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ABC won the night with adults 18-49 and CBS led with total viewers.  America’s Funniest Videos was up five-tenths to a 2.0 from last week’s 1.5 rating while Once Upon A Time was even with last week’s 3.0 adults 18-49 rating.  Desperate Housewives was up three tenths to a 2.8 vs. last week’s a 2.5 adults 18-49 rating.  GCB‘s finale was even with last week’s 1.8 adults 18-49 rating.

On Fox, the 7:30pm Cleveland Show was down a tenth to a 1.4 vs. last week’s 1.5 adults 18-49 rating,    The Simpsons was down two-tenths to a 2.1 vs. last week’s 2.3 and Bob’s Burgers was down a tenth to a 1.8 from last week’s 1.9 adults 18-49 rating.  Family Guy earned a 2.7, down a tenth compared to the a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating it earned last week. American Dad returned this week after a month to earn a 2.3 adults 18-49 rating vs. the 2.0 its last original earned.

CBS’s two-hour  Amazing Race finale drew a 2.6 compared with last week’s season low-matching  a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating, and was up in both ratings and viewership from last years’ finale. NYC 22 earned a 1.3, up a tenth compared to last week’s 1.2 adults 18-49 rating. Earlier in the night, 60 Minutes earned a 1.6, up four tenths from last week’s 1.2 adults 18-49 rating.

On NBC, Harry’s Law hit a new series low, earning only a 0.7, down two-tenths from last week’s 0.9 adults 18-49 rating. From 9-11p Celebrity Apprentice was down a tenth, drawing only a 1.9 compared to last week’s a 2.0 adults 18-49 rating.

Broadcast primetime ratings for Sunday, May 6, 2012:

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Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2012 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

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 and Numbers 102.