The Sked: America’s Got Talent Sees No Olympic Lift

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NBC eked out a narrow victory Tuesday, averaging a 2.3 Adult 18-49 rating in prime time.  America’s Got Talent returned to the air with a 2.7 rating from 8-10 pm, exactly where it was on July 24, the last Tuesday telecast before the Olympics.   This time last summer (Tuesday, August 16, 2011) AGT scored a 2.9 rating.  On-air promotion during the London Olympic games did absolutely nothing for the network’s flagship summer show.  NBC would have benefited from returning AGT on Monday, the night after 31 million people watched the Closing Ceremony, creating a three-night event for AGT Monday-Wednesday, maximizing the show’s rating and providing a potent lead-in for the otherwise impotent Stars Earn Stripes, which was expected to generate excitement on its own Monday night.  Speaking of Stars Earn Stripes, a repeat hour last night at 10 pm posted a 1.4 rating.  On the surface, it might seem acceptable that a repeat almost matched the original telecast’s 1.7 rating, but keep in mind there was serious erosion within the hour last night: a 1.6 rating in the 10:00 half hour turned into a 1.3 by 10:30-11:00.  Not encouraging for the patriotic reality show.

FOX was a close second last night with a 2.2 rating.  Night two of Hotel Hell averaged a 2.1 rating, up two tenths from Monday’s premiere.  Score another qualified success for Gordon Ramsay.  And MasterChef followed up at 9 pm with a 2.4 rating.

CBS barely registered with a 1.1 rating  from 8-11 pm.  Repeats of NCIS, NCIS: LA and The Mentalist each posted that same 1.1 rating.

ABC struggled to a 0.8 rating for the night.  Repeats of The Middle and Last Man Standing started the evening with a 0.8, but the 9 pm hour sunk to a 0.6 rating with repeats of Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B–.  An original NY Med finished the night with a 1.0 rating.

Compared to the last Tuesday before the Olympics, NBC was up one tenth of a rating point for the night (even a repeat Stars Earn Stripes was an upgrade over an original Love in the Wild), FOX was down four tenths (Hotel Hell might be growing but it still is a ways away from Hell’s Kitchen‘s 2.7 rating), and CBS and ABC were unchanged.