The night was dominated by football and its aftereffects, but there were some other (dimmer) bright spots.  Note:  we don’t yet have a rating for the PBS season debut of Downton Abbey. FOX:  Our projection is that the overrun of the NFC WILD CARD PLAYOFF GAME, which pushed the network’s primetime schedule by about […]

  Viewers really wanted to see the Mother‘s side of the story. CBS:  The 200th episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, told from the Mother character’s point of view, leaped 0.7 to a season high 3.8, and seemed to perk up the network’s entire line-up.  (CBS is so going to miss Mother next fall.) […]

  It was American Idol‘s turn to feel the Olympics pain. NBC:  See Mitch Metcalf’s SKEDBALL post for details on last night’s Sochi ratings.  After an uptick on Tuesday, Wednesday’s WINTER OLYMPICS coverage fell to 5.6, down a full point from the previous day, and also back to being below the last 3 winter games […]

  SUNDAY UPDATE:  In final FINAL numbers, THE ACADEMY AWARDS gained an extra 0.2 to 13.1, which although tiny as a percentage of total rating, was gratifying to the Academy and ABC, because it pushed the telecast 0.1 above last year’s Seth MacFarlane-hosted show in 18-49s (it was already comfortably up in older-skewing total viewers).  […]

  UPDATE:  The NCAA TOURNAMENT games on CBS adjusted to 1.0/1.3.  HART OF DIXIE lost 0.1 in final numbers, lessening its chances of survival.  SHARK TANK and 20/20 went up 0.1. FRIDAY CABLE:  The NCAA TOURNAMENT primetime game on TNT (Providence/North Carolina) outrated its broadcast competition (Wichita State/Cal Poly) with 1.2.  Other NCAA games on […]

The ratings below are household ratings from the 56 television markets with local Nielsen meters for Saturday April 12 and Sunday April 13, 2014. The 56 markets (out of 210 total) cover about 70% of the US television population.   PGA Golf: The Masters “Hello, Friends…” 4.4 rating CBS 3:00 pm Saturday 3rd Round (-30% […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  2 BROKE GIRLS and DANCING WITH THE STARS got back a bit of what they’d lost to 24, each up 0.1 from this morning.  MIKE & MOLLY, though, fell an additional 0.1.  The 10PM NCIS LA rerun was also down 0.1. MONDAY CABLE:  The season premiere of LOUIE (FX), at 0.5 for […]

  BACKSTROM:  Midseason TBD on FOX THE FACTS:  Rainn Wilson plays your basic difficult-but-brilliant homicide detective in a procedural based on a series of Swedish mystery novels, adapted for television by Hart Hanson, the creator of Bones.  Backstrom is grumpy and dismissive of his colleagues, and unhealthy in his eating, drinking and general living habits, […]