Thursday 1/5/12 – ABC Dominates with Returning Grey’s and Private Practice, Jersey Shore Premieres Decent

Only ABC and CW returned with full line-ups of original content Thursday.  The former easily won the night with the fifth season premiere of Wipeout (2.51 A18-49 Live Rtg) leading the schedule.  Placing second in the time period, the competition series delivered a 24% smaller A18-49 audience than its year ago premiere.  New since its last original on 11/10/11, Grey’s Anatomy (3.47) garnered a 17% lift from its previous episode with A18-49, while Private Practice (2.24) improved a healthy 10% from its last telecast on 11/17/11.

Despite airing all repeats, CBS’ Thursday repertoire of The Big Bang Theory (3.08), Rules of Engagement (2.38), Person of Interest (1.74) and The Mentalist (1.81) placed the network second overall among A18-49.

Univision's lineup of Familia con Suerte (1.64), the premiere of Que No Podia Amor (1.79) and Rosa de Guadalupe (1.25) placed ahead of the remaining broadcast networks, drawing the third largest A18-49 viewership across the Thursday night.

Fueled by the season five opener of Jersey Shore at 10PM (3.13), MTV averaged the largest A18-49 cable audience. Watched by 6.1 million Live total viewers, the reality series was off just 4% among A18-49 from its fourth season premiere in August, but fell 11% from its season three opener one year ago.

A Family Guy and Big Bang Theory marathon on TBS and NBA coverage of the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks game on TNT averaged the second and third largest A18-49 cable ratings, beating out back-to-back encores of FOX's Bones (1.06 and 1.03, respectively).

Falling behind the aforementioned networks, NBC aired encores of its Thursday comedy block, including special repeats of The Office (0.68) and Up All Night (0.67) in the 10PM hour. 

Keeping The CW in last place across broadcast, a new episode of Vampire Diaries (0.97) grew 11% with A18-49 viewers from its last November telecast, while Secret Circle (0.62) remained relatively flat.

Source: Nielsen, based on Live data.