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Unfortunately for NBC, there are other nights in the week besides Monday.
NBC: The gradual season-long collapse of THE OFFICE continued last night, as the show’s 2.5 hit not just a season low, but its lowest rating since Season 1 in 2005–i.e., the season that almost got it canceled. That was still by far the s network’s highest number of the night. 30 ROCK was misleadingly up from last week, which was an aberration caused by a program description that resulted in DVRs not picking up the episode; last night’s 1.6 was in line with the other episodes this season (and slightly below recent episodes of Parks & Recreation, which it replaced for the night). UP ALL NIGHT tied its Thursday low. Perhaps the most pathetic news of the evening was that the meager 1.5 earned by a repeat of the post-Super Bowl VOICE at 10PM still marked almost double the rating Prime Suspect and The Firm had been doing in that slot.FOX: AMERICAN IDOL was up 0.2 to a 5.7 (losing again in its first half-hour to Big Bang Theory), still down more than 20% from the parallel night last year. THE FINDER was down slightly, mired in 4th place for its hour.
CBS: BIG BANG THEORY continued to win its half hour, dead even with the past 2 weeks. ROB, too, has spent the past 4 weeks within a tiny range of 0.2 up or down. This stability has been great for PERSON OF INTEREST and THE MENTALIST, which both tied their season highs–Mentalist won its hour, and Person was a strong 2d at 9PM.
ABC: WIPEOUT hit a new season low, but after that the news improved. GREY’S ANATOMY, back on track after the previous week’s “alternate universe” episode, had its highest rating in more than a month, while PRIVATE PRACTICE was on the lower end of its numbers, but very stable.
CW: VAMPIRE DIARIES’ steady 1.2 put it in hailing distance of both NBC and ABC for the hour. SECRET CIRCLE was up slightly to (for CW) a very strong 0.8.
No sweeps events tonight, just an evening of all-new episodes. On Saturday, NBC repeats its entire Monday night line-up all over again, while ABC prepares for the return of Cougar Town with a mini-marathon after a Valentine’s Day-themed Charlie Brown special. And FOX gets into the holiday spirit, too, with America’s Most Wanted: Crimes of Passion Special Edition.
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