The Sked: TUESDAY RATINGS May 1

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>A night of disappearing rating points.  Last May, the first Tuesday of the sweep had a combined 12.6 rating points for the four major broadcast networks.  Last night the “big” four combined for 8.8 rating points, a staggering 30% decline.  Much of this decline is due to The Voice on NBC.  Last year on this night, the second performance episode of the red hot show scored a 5.7 rating for two hours, compared to a 3.1 rating for a one hour results show last night.  In addition, CBS stalwart NCIS was down seven tenths of a rating point year to year, Dancing with the Stars Results on ABC was down a similar margin, and FOX’s Glee was down a full 1.3 rating points.  See how last night impacted the May Sweep ratings race.       

 Tuesday      CBS    ABC    NBC    FOX

After a few weeks of repeats, CBS was back on top last night, the first Tuesday of the May Sweep.  NCIS turned in what will be a season low 3.0 rating with Adults 18-49 (pending adjustments in the fast nationals), but NCIS: Los Angeles turned in a strong relative performance, holding 100% of its lead in as the two-night crossover with Hawaii Five-O concluded.  Unforgettable failed to take advantage of the lead in and remains stuck at its season low, well below a 2 rating.  Last year on CBS on this night:  NCIS (3.7), NCIS Los Angeles (2.9) and The Good Wife (2.4).

NBC’s Tuesday night drifted down two tenths from last week.  Biggest Loser ended its current cycle with a soft 2.1 rating (near the season low), while The Voice Results show is currently at a 3.1 in the fast nationals.  Although Voice Results will probably go up to a 3.2 in the official nationals and remain the highest rated hour on the night, the show will be stuck at its season low.  Last year on this night: Biggest Loser (2.7) from 8-9 pm and The Voice (5.7) from 9-11 pm in its very strong second week.      

FOX Tuesday has absolutely no traction.  Glee reverted to a season low 2.4 rating last night, bouncing between a 2.4 and 2.7 the last four weeks.  New Girl is currently a 2.1 rating (probably a 2.2 in the official nationals), but that will still be a new season low and about half a rating point below the last three original episodes.  Last year on this night, FOX aired Glee (3.7), Raising Hope (1.8) and Traffic Light (1.1). 

ABC finished in fourth place Tuesday with a very weak outing from Last Man Standing (a 1.4 rating for an original episode, much closer to a typical repeat episode rating) and an anemic 1.3 rating for Cougar Town.  Dancing with the Stars Results was fairly close to the past three weeks, while the best news of the night for ABC was Private Practice almost holding last week’s rating and winning an admittedly very non-competitive 10 pm hour.  The same night last year:  Dancing with the Stars Recap (1.8), Dancing with the Stars Results (3.0) and Body of Proof (2.0).
 

President Obama’s trip to Afghanistan and the obligatory address to the nation threatened to disrupt last night’s network programming, but the White House scheduled the speech for 7:30 pm ET and limited the speech to around 15 minutes, much to the relief of network executives who were able to start prime time programs at 8:00/ 7:00 Central as normal with no risk of losing network commercials.  This time the local stations had to take the pain and have their syndicated programs partially pre-empted by the speech.   

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