Broadcast Network Rankings through January 20

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THE WEEK.  For the recently completed week ending Sunday (January 14-20, 2013), CBS remained in first place with a preliminary 4.45 adult 18-49 rating, building even more from last week’s impressive 3.19 rating.  The extraordinary week was highlighted by the AFC  Championship Game Sunday, which averaged a 14.6 rating in the fast nationals and should go up to around a 16.8 in the official, time-zone-adjusted nationals.  CBS also won Monday (3.3 for originals of its regular schedule) and won Tuesday (2.7 also with the regular schedule).  Wednesday and Thursday were mostly repeats against the two-night premiere of American Idol on FOX, but the big difference between CBS and the other networks is that a repeat night stays at or above a 2 rating (2.1 on Wednesday for a mix of repeats and originals and a 2.0 on Thursday for all repeats).

FOX remained in second place with a 2.59 rating for the week, down from a 2.93 last week.  No prime time football inflated FOX’s week.  All credit goes to American Idol.  Although it was the lowest premiere for Idol on record, it still was a 6.0 rating on Wednesday and 5.6 on Thursday.  The rest of the schedule is still weak, however.  A lot is riding on the premiere of The Following tonight.

ABC is headed for a 1.71 weekly rating, down from last week (1.88) but moving up to third place because of NBC’s freefall.  ABC’s strongest night remains Wednesday (2.5 rating), followed closely by Monday (2.3).  It’s very tough to make a move when a mid-2 rating is the high-water mark for the week.

NBC collapsed again to a 1.21 rating for the week, down from 2.16 last week.   No NFL, no Voice, and no Golden Globes.  The highlight of the week: a 2.1 rating on Monday, which will erode in the coming weeks as Deception continues to settle.  NBC’s other relatively promising night (Wednesday) was in all-repeat mode and fell to a 0.8 rating.  All the other nights of the week struggled between a 0.5 and 1.7.

SEASON TO DATE through 17 weeks (with adjusted fast national ratings for the last three nights):

NBC is now averaging a 2.58 adult 18-49 rating in prime time (up 14% from the same period last year).

CBS is in second place, moving all the way up to 2.37 (down 12%).  Last week, CBS was 16% behind NBC in the season to date race.  This week the gap shrunk to 8%.  With the Super Bowl in just two weeks, CBS should pass NBC and never look back.

FOX remains in third place with a 2.15 (down 17%).

ABC is in fourth with a 1.87 (down 12%).

Collectively, the four networks total an 8.97 rating (down 7% from 9.66 the same period last year).

The CW is averaging a 0.54 in prime so far this season (down 10%).