TV Ratings: 'Idol' dominates Thursday, while NBC's 'Awake' premiere finds a few eyes

CBS repeats and 'Rob' finish the night in second

By Daniel Fienberg Friday, Mar 2, 2012 11:58 AM

Jason Isaacs of "Awake"

Credit: NBC

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Fast National ratings for Thursday, March 1, 2012.

A two-hour "American Idol" episode presenting the new season's Top 13 drew the show's biggest overall audience in a couple weeks and carried FOX to an easy win on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, while most networks wouldn't consider 6.25 million viewers and a 1.9 key demo rating a rousing success, NBC may well be cautiously optimistic when it comes to the Thursday premiere of the new drama "Awake."

Among adults 18-49, FOX averaged a 5.3 rating, easily winning the coveted demographic. FOX very nearly beat the combined key demo totals for CBS (2.1), NBC (1.9), ABC (1.1) and The CW (0.4).

Overall, FOX averaged an estimated 18.28 million viewers and a 10.7 rating/17 share for Thursday night. CBS was a distant second with a 6.1/10 and 9.47 million viewers. That was still far ahead of the 3.1/5 and 4.75 million viewers for NBC and ABC's 3.675 million viewers and a 2.4/4. The CW averaged a 0.7/1 and 1.03 million viewers.

[Univision averaged 3.38 million viewers and a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 for Thursday night.]

8 p.m. - FOX started primetime in first with 17.82 million viewers and a 5.0 rating among adults 18-49 for the first hour of "American Idol." CBS was second with a repeat of "The Big Bang Theory" (11.11 million and a 3.2 key demo rating) and a new "Rob" (9 million and a 2.6 key demo). ABC's repeat of "Wipeout" averaged 4.545 million viewers and a 1.3 key demo rating. NBC was fourth overall and third in the key demo with new episodes of "30 Rock" (3.77 million viewers and a 1.4 key demo) and "Parks and Recreation" (3.78 million viewers and a 1.7 key demo). The CW's repeat of "Vampire Diaries" averaged 1.11 million viewers and a 0.4 key demo rating.

9 p.m. - The second hour of "American Idol" improved to 18.74 million viewers and a 5.6 rating among adults 18-49 for FOX. CBS was second overall with 9.48 million viewers for a "Person of Interest" repeat, which did a 1.8 key demo rating for third. NBC was third overall and second in the demo with "The Office" (4.955 million and a 2.5 key demo) and "Up All Night" (3.48 million and a 1.6 key demo). ABC's repeat of "Grey's Anatomy" averaged 3.44 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo rating, far better than the 952,000 viewers and 0.3 key demo for a "Supernatural" repeat on The CW.

10 p.m. - A repeat of "The Mentalist" won the 10 p.m. hour overall for CBS with 8.87 million viewers and finished second with a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49. NBC's "Awake" premiere did the aforementioned 6.25 million viewers and the hour-winning 1.9 rating among adults 18-49, which counts as far better than the recent premiere for "The Firm" and marginally better than the September launch (against a full slate of competition) for "Prime Suspect." ABC's encore of the post-Oscars "Jimmy Kimmel Live" averaged 3.04 million viewers and a 1.0 key demo rating.

All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change.

Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

Related Searches: Nielsen ratings, TV Ratings, ratings, Thursday, American Idol, Rob, Parks and Recreation, The Office, 30 Rock, Awake

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Captain Hammer

You would've thought that most of the networks taking the night off would've helped NBC at least a little bit, but it doesn't appear that it did. As for Awake, the numbers aren't too great, especially when you consider that it had no competition, but hopefully they're good enough to suggest that it'll stay strong enough for NBC to at least air the entire season.
March 2, 2012 at 1:06PM EST Reply to Comment
- Captain Hammer - "Awake" will have a couple more weeks upcoming without competition or with reduced competition, so presumably it should have at least the opportunity to stabilize quickly. Assuming people like it. If people don't like it, it's probably all moot anyway.
  
  -Daniel
  March 2, 2012 at 1:20PM EST
Mark

Makes you wonder what the ratings would have been had they not released the pilot online a week in advance.
March 2, 2012 at 1:27PM EST Reply to Comment
- Mark - Either higher -- because people wouldn't have seen it beforehand -- or lower -- because people wouldn't have had two or three weeks to tell friends and build buzz.
  
  Or neither.
  
  -Daniel
  March 2, 2012 at 2:03PM EST
Kevin

Hopefully Awake is the kind of show that can build an audience. I was expecting disaster, so last night's ratings are actually somewhat encouraging (especially on NBC with no lead-in).
March 2, 2012 at 2:50PM EST Reply to Comment
theholyavenger

Wow the NBC comedies are doing much worse than I thought.
March 2, 2012 at 4:13PM EST Reply to Comment

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TV Ratings: 'Idol' dominates Thursday, while NBC's 'Awake' premiere finds a few eyes

CBS repeats and 'Rob' finish the night in second