>Put ABC’s Suburgatory in the conditional win column, while Revenge is on a watch list to see where it settles. FOX’s The X Factor suffered a decline in week two, but the Simon Cowell performance show still powered FOX to a victory on the second Wednesday of the season. CBS was down a bit at 9 pm, but otherwise fairly stable. The bleeding continues at NBC.
ABC has launched another show successfully. Suburgatory debuted to a 3.3 Adult 18-49 rating, building off the The Middle‘s 2.6 (which was down 0.5 from its premiere last week). Modern Family also declined 0.5 from its premiere to a 5.6 rating, and Happy Endings returned to the schedule with a 3.2 rating. (That’s a hefty drop from its lead-in, but in this tough network TV environment, a 3.2 at 9:30 is not a disaster.) Week two of Revenge declined to a 2.7 (down a full 0.7 from the premiere), but more disturbing is that it dropped from a 2.9 in the first half hour to a 2.6 from 10:30-11:00 pm. Going forward, Revenge will be lucky to hold on to a mid-2 rating week in and week out. We need a few more weeks to see where the audience sorts out. ABC averaged a 3.4 rating for the night (in second place), up substantially at 10 pm and up in the 8:30-10:00 comedy half hours. On the same night last year (9.29.2010), ABC was in fourth place for the night, averaging a 2.4 rating: The Middle (2.5), Better with You (2.2), Modern Family (4.6), Cougar Town (2.8), The Whole Truth (1.2).
FOX won the night with a 4.0 for The X Factor, which turned in a 3.6 from 8-9 pm and a 4.3 at 9 pm. This is down from a 4.4 rating last week but up significantly from last year. This night last year, FOX was in second place with a 2.9 rating: Hell’s Kitchen (2.8) at 8 pm and Hell’s Kitchen at 9 pm (3.0). Next week will be incredibly important for The X Factor — can it hold at the 3.9/4.0 level or sink to the mid-3 rating range?
CBS is a close third or tied for second for the night with a 3.2 or 3.3 rating, depending on rounding. Week to week, Survivor was down a tick to a 3.1 rating, while Criminal Minds dropped 0.5 to a 3.6. If anyone was hurt by the ESPN coverage last night of Major League Baseball’s incredible final night of the regular season (when the two wild card spots were decided in three very close games on the various ESPN networks), it would be older-skewing CBS. CSI dropped 0.2 to a 3.0 but won the time period thanks to decline of Revenge. CBS won the second Wednesday last year with a modest 3.2 rating: Survivor (3.5), Criminal Minds (3.6), Defenders (2.5).
NBC has not found bottom yet in the 8 pm comedy hour. Up All Night dropped again to a 2.1 rating (down 0.3), and Free Agents hit a lowly 1.0 rating (down 0.3). Harry’s Law was steady week to week with a 1.2, while Law & Order: SVU drifted down to a 2.0 (down 0.4). The Peacock averaged a fourth-place 1.6 for the evening. NBC was in third place on this night last year with a 2.5 rating: Undercovers (1.6), Law & Order: SVU (2.8), Law & Order: Los Angeles premiere (3.2).
The CW’s reality shows perked up a bit. H8R was up 0.2 to a 0.6 rating (a Kim Kardashian episode), and America’s Next Top Model was up one tenth to a 0.8.
Season to date (through ten nights of the season), FOX leads with a 3.4 rating, followed by CBS with a 3.3. ABC remains in third (2.8) and NBC brings up the rear (2.4). The CW is averaging a 0.7 season to date.
WEDNESDAY FALL 2011 Estimates Episode Rating
May Sep #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 Avg
ABC
800 The Middle 2.7 2.7 3.1 2.6
830 Suburgatory 2.3 2.4 3.3
900 Modern Family 4.6 4.6 6.1 5.6
930 Happy Endings 3.0 2.9 3.2
1000 Revenge 2.2 2.3 3.4 2.7
CBS
800 Survivor 3.6 3.6 3.4 3.2 3.1
900 Criminal Minds 3.7 3.7 4.1 3.6
1000 CSI 2.6 2.6 3.2 3.0
NBC
800 Up All Night 1.9 2.1 3.7 2.4 2.1
830 Free Agents 1.6 1.6 2.1 1.3 1.0
900 Harry’s Law 2.2 2.2 1.2 1.2
1000 L&O SVU 2.3 2.3 2.4 2.0
FOX
800 X-Factor 3.3 3.3 4.0 3.6
900 X-Factor 3.7 3.7 4.4 4.3
930 Hate My Teenge 2.6 2.5 11/30
CW
800 H8R n/a n/a 0.6 0.4 0.6
900 Next Top Model n/a n/a 0.9 0.7 0.8
About the Author
