FOX Wins With American Idol, Series Premiere of Missing Ranks Second During the Hour
Despite American Idol (3.46 A18-49 Live Rating) falling 6% week-to-week, FOX still ranked first among A18-49 viewers Thursday evening, ending the night with a repeat airing of Touch at 9PM. Though down among A18-49 viewers, American Idol still earned the greatest amount of social media buzz (74,167 comments), up 54% from a week ago.
The series debut of ABC's newest drama, Missing, posted a 1.63 Live A18-49 rating, improving 15% from ABC's last original Thursday night program, Wipeout, on 02/23/12, though was down 8% from the series premiere of the now-cancelled Charlie's Angels on 09/22/11. During the 9PM and 10PM hours, Grey's Anatomy (2.17) and Private Practice (1.68), respectively, reported similar declines among A18-49 from their prior episodes on 02/23/12.
With NCAA Basketball being split between 4 networks, CBS' coverage of the tournament led the network to only a third place finish among A18-49 Thursday night. Games in the evenings first window across CBS, TNT, TRU TV and TBS were up 14% among A18-49 from last year's multiple telecasts, while the final window of the night was up 10%.
Univision's lineup of Familia Con Suerte 2, the Thursday night premiere of Abismo De Pasion and Que No Podia Amar drove the network to a fourth place finish among A18-49 across all of broadcast and cable.
Finishing fifth overall, all of NBC's programs remained flat or were up among A18-49 from their prior originals, with the exception of The Office (1.56), which was down 7% from a week ago. After a long hiatus, Community (1.73) at 8PM saw its A18-49 audience improve by 66% from its previous episode on 12/08/11, while 30 Rock (1.49), in its new 8:30PM time-slot, experienced 54% growth from its 8PM airing last week. At 9:30PM, Up All Night (1.34) remained relatively stable among A18-49 week-over-week, leading into Awake (1.38), which remained flat.
Fueled by its Thursday night block of Swamp People and an original episode of Mudcats, History led the night among A18-49 across Cable.
With an original airing of Jersey Shore at 10PM, MTV earned the second highest A18-49 Cable ratings Thursday night. Jersey Shore was the most widely talked about Cable show online Thursday evening, earning just over 62,000 remarks.
Ranking among the top ten networks last night, The CW's The Vampire Diaries (0.76) and The Secret Circle (0.53) still experienced declines among A18-49 from their prior originals on 02/16/12, falling 20% and 12%, respectively. Though down among A18-49, Vampire Diaries still earned the second largest commentary across broadcast (61,624 comments), growing 23% from 02/16/12.
Source: Nielsen, based on Live data; Bluefin Labs Social TV Analytics
