THE SKED: THURSDAY Ratings September 22

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Thursday night is off and running, and the highest rated show on the night is Big Bang Theory on CBS with a 4.9 Adult 18-49 rating (4.8 the first half hour and a 5.0 from 8:30-9:00).  The highly anticipated Person of Interest at 9 pm did not take full advantage of this sterling lead-in, settling for a 3.1 rating (fourth place in the hour and below the ShowBuzzDaily ratings projection for the fall).

At ABC, Charlie’s Angels opened tepidly with a 2.1 demo rating, about where we expected it to be.  Grey’s Anatomy showed some life in its two-hour season premiere (doing a 3.9 rating in its regular 9-10 pm hour and a time-period dominating 4.2 from 10-11 pm).

NBC is pretty much dead from 8-9 pm, with the vastly over-rated Community fourth in the time period and not too far above The CW’s Vampire Diaries.  Parks & Recreation rises to a 2.0 rating but keeps the Peacock in fourth place from 8:30-9:00.   Both Community and Parks are slightly below our ratings forecast.  But the news was good at 9 pm — the Carrell-less Office logged a 3.9 rating (tied for second in the slot) as viewers came to see who the new boss will be.  Whitney premiered to 82% retention of The Office, a respectable percentage that will be watched very carefully in the next few weeks.  If it starts dropping into the low-70% range, eyebrows will be raised.  But anything in the high-70% range or above will speak to patience.  But the mostly bad news this week for NBC returned at 10 pm with the rejection of Prime Suspect.  56% retention of the Whitney lead-in, a distant last place in the hour, and below a 2 rating.  Not good news for the network or the local NBC stations who live and die off the lead-in to their late local news. 

And what about FOX?  Well, they quietly won the night with The X Factor.  Yes, it is much lower than American Idol, about which there has been much gnashing of teeth.  But television is about winning time periods and winning nights — by that measure The X Factor is getting the job done on a very competitive evening. 

On The CW, the two dramas drifted down a few tenths after coasting the first week with repeat competition. 

Through the first four days of Premiere Week, CBS is leading with a 4.1 demo rating, followed by FOX at a 3.8, ABC at a 3.4, and NBC all the way down at a 2.1.  The CW is averaging a 0.7.

THURSDAY FALL 2011  Estimates         Episode Rating     
                    May   Sep   #1   #2   #3   #4   #5   #6   Avg
ABC
 800 Charlie’s Ang  2.3   2.2   2.1
 900 Grey’s Anatomy 3.7   3.6   4.1
1000 Private Practi 2.6   2.5   9/29 
CBS
 800 Big Bang Theor 3.9   4.0   4.9
 830 How Gentleman  3.2   2.9   9/29
 900 Person Interest3.5   3.5   3.1
1000 Mentalist      3.3   3.3   2.8
NBC
 800 Community      1.9   1.9   1.7
 830 Parks & Rec    2.1   2.1   2.0
 900 The Office     3.1   3.0   3.9
 930 Whitney        2.6   2.4   3.2
1000 Prime Suspect  2.5   2.4   1.8
FOX
 800 X-Factor       3.4   3.4   4.2   
 900 Bones          2.5   2.5   11/3
CW
 800 Vampire Diar   n/a   n/a   1.5  1.2
 900 Secret Circle  n/a   n/a   1.3  0.9