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November 10, 2011
 

The Sked: WEDNESDAY RATINGS November 9 & Sweep Update

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Written by: Mitch Metcalf
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>It was a surprisingly good night for network television last night with three networks up over the same night last year and only NBC flat to marginally down versus last year.  ABC led the way with the 45th Country Music Awards, up a tenth of a rating point over last year’s edition.  FOX’s The X Factor was down a bit versus the prior few weeks but still marks a strong year-over-year improvement for the network.  CBS was also up significantly, rising 11% over the same night last year when The Defenders was struggling at 10 pm.  For the sweep to date (at the exact midpoint of the sweep), FOX is still #1 and CBS is #2, while NBC is maintaining a narrow lead over ABC in the race to stay out of the basement.  NBC has benefited from strong Sunday Night Football games, which have erased the big declines on every other night but Friday.  Later today, we will look at each night of the week season to date to provide that overall perspective.

           NOVEMBER SWEEP LAST NIGHT
          2011 vs 2010 Day 14

                 2011    2010
          ABC     4.8     4.7     + 2% 
          FOX     3.7     2.6     +42%
          CBS     3.0     2.7     +11%

          NBC     1.6     1.6     – 2% 

           NOVEMBER SWEEP SCORECARD
          2011 vs 2010 Through Day 14 of 28

                 2011    2010
          FOX     3.6     2.9     +26%
          CBS     3.1     2.8     +11%
          ABC     2.4     2.6     – 8%
          NBC     2.5     2.4     + 3% 


ABC’s entire regular prime time schedule rode the bench last night in favor of the Country Music Awards, which won the night with a 4.8 fast national Adult 18-49 rating.  The 45th CMAs improved every ABC Wednesday time period except for Modern Family‘s 9:00-9:30 half hour, and was up one tenth from the 44th awards ceremony on this night last year.

ABC Wed Track    9.21  9.28  10.5  10.12 10.19 10.26 11.2  11.9
The Middle       3.1   2.7   2.8   2.9   3.0   3.2   3.0   —
Suburgatory       —   3.3   3.1   3.1   3.1   3.4   3.1   —
Modern Family    6.1   5.7   5.7   5.9   5.6   4.5R  5.7   —
Happy Endings     —   3.1   2.8   3.2   3.0   3.5   3.4   —

Revenge          3.4   2.7   2.4   2.7   2.5   2.7   3.0   —

Impacted by the Country Music Awards, The X Factor turned in its lowest Wednesday rating of the season, but the 3.7 rating is still a vast improvement over last year’s Hell’s Kitchen combo on this night in 2010 (2.5 rating at 8 pm and 2.8 at 9 pm).

FOX Wed Track    9.21  9.28  10.5  10.12 10.18 10.25 11.2  11.9
X Factor         4.4   4.1   4.1   —   3.9   4.4   4.0   3.7*
                                         Tue   Tue

CBS had a relatively poor Wednesday night (looking at this season) with season lows for Survivor, Criminal Minds and CSI, again feeling the impact of the CMAs.  Nonetheless, the night looks pretty good compared to November 10, 2010 (Survivor 3.2, Criminal Minds 3.1 and The Defenders 1.8).

CBS Wed Track    9.21  9.28  10.5  10.12 10.19 10.26 11.2  11.9
Survivor         3.2   3.2   3.1   3.2   3.3   3.5   3.6   3.1*
Criminal Minds   4.1   3.6   3.8   3.8   3.9   2.8R  3.7   3.4*
CSI              3.2   3.1   2.9   2.6   2.6   2.0R  2.7   2.5*

Over at NBC, Up All Night is flat-lining at a 1.8 rating but still above the 1.2 rating posted by the final Undercovers episode of last November on this night — so there’s that.  Nevertheless, Harry’s Law at a season best 1.3 rating is under last year’s SVU number on this night at 9 pm (2.0 rating).  At 10 pm, SVU this year (1.9 rating) is slightly exceeding the 1.7 from Law & Order: Los Angeles on this night last year.  On balance, though, basically the same performance across the night year over year.   

NBC Wed Track    9.21  9.28  10.5  10.12 10.19 10.26 11.2  11.9
Up All Night     2.4   2.1   2.3   2.1   2.1   1.1R  1.8   1.8*
Free Agents      1.3   1.0   1.0   —   —   —   —   —

Harry’s Law      1.2   1.2   1.2   1.2   1.3   0.8R  1.1   1.3*

L&O SVU          2.4   2.1   2.1   2.1   2.2   —   2.0   1.9*

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About the Author

Mitch Metcalf
MITCH METCALF has been tracking every US film release of over 500 screens (over 2300 movies and counting) since the storied weekend of May 20, 1994, when Maverick and Beverly Hills Cop 3 inspired countless aficionados to devote their lives to the art of cinema. Prior to that, he studied Politics and Economics at Princeton in order to prepare for his dream of working in television. He has been Head of West Coast Research at ABC, then moved to NBC in 2000 and became Head of Scheduling for 11 years.