The Sked: WEDNESDAY RATINGS February 29

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>American Idol edged down again this week, but the rate of decline is slowing.  The Wednesday edition appears to be locking in on a 5 rating or just below.  Meanwhile, ABC bounced back from last week and is approaching last year’s pace.  CBS, in contrast, is way off last year’s numbers.  NBC continues to struggle mightily.

             Nightly Adult 18-49 Rating
Wednesday    FOX    CBS    ABC    NBC
02.29.2012   4.9    2.9    2.9    1.2    THIS WEEK
02.22.2012   5.1    2.9    2.4    1.2    LAST WEEK
03.02.2011   7.4    4.0    3.1    1.2    LAST YEAR

FOX’s American Idol declined again this week (though it was a relatively minor two tenths of a rating point drop) to a 4.9 preliminary 18-49 rating.  (In the official nationals Idol will probably go up up to a 5.0, which would be a serious 43% drop from last year’s episode.)  Idol started slowly at 8:00 and built moderately from 8:30 on: 4.4… 5.0… 5.0… 5.3.  Last year on this night, American Idol aired for 90 minutes (8.8) followed by Traffic Light (3.0).  By half hour last year on this night, Idol grew from 8.1 to 8.8 to 9.6.          

The second episode of Survivor reversed last week’s decline, up a tenth to a 2.9 rating (but still 27% off last year’s pace).  Criminal Minds is steady with prior weeks at a 3.1 (34% below last year’s comparable episode).  And CSI is down from last week and below the pace of Suspect Behavior (which hadn’t yet fallen apart — that would come in May).  Last year on this night: Survivor (4.0), Criminal Minds (4.7) and Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (3.3).  

ABC’s comedies had a pretty good night, with the three lower-rated half hours up from last week’s lows.  The strongest comedy, Modern Family, was steady with last week at a 4.8 rating (but down 20% from last year’s torrid pace).  Revenge returned to the hour after last week’s unfortunate pre-emption for Robin Roberts’ Before They Were Famous special and picked up where it left off, still at a decent but unspectacular 2.4 rating.  Last year on this night, ABC averaged a 3.1 rating: The Middle (2.8), Better with You (2.0), Modern Family (6.0), Mr Sunshine (3.0) and Off the Map (2.3).   

NBC stayed at a very weak 1.2 from 8-11 pm.  Three of the four shows in the lineup were flat versus last week’s low numbers.  Lucky for Rock Center though — a minor weekly increase to a 0.7 prevented it from an embarrassing tie with The CW’s America’s Next Top Model soft premiere (0.6).  In the 10 pm hour, SVU was the only network show to increase its rating at 10:30 (going from a 1.4 at 10:00 to a 1.7 at 10:30).  But SVU was still in third place in the 10:30 half hour (CSI declined from a 2.7 to a 2.4 by half hour, and Revenge fell from a 2.5 to a 2.2).  SVU is still able to entertain its viewers with good storytelling and keep viewers from going to bed — it just is starting with such a low base.  Last year on this night: Minute to Win It (1.0) from 8-10 pm and Law & Order SVU (1.7).
         

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