TV Ratings: FOX's Britney Spears Thursday crushes NBC's comedy premieres

'X Factor' and 'Glee' both win their hours, while NBC's premieres lag

By Daniel Fienberg Friday, Sep 21, 2012 11:54 AM

A scene from Thursday's "Glee"

Credit: FOX

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Fast National ratings for Thursday, September 20, 2012.

A second straight night of rising ratings for "The X Factor," plus a Britney Spears-themed episode of "Glee" helped FOX roll to easy ratings wins on Thursday night, topping unimpressive premieres for NBC's comedy lineup, including "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation."

Note that the "Britney 2.0" episode of "Glee" didn't come close to matching the ratings for the first Spears-inspired episode and that while "X Factor" was up from last week, "Glee" was down.

For the night, FOX averaged a 3.1 rating among adults 18-49, easily tops in the key demographic. Repeat-driven CBS averaged a 1.8 rating in the key demo, beating the 1.5 key demo rating for NBC's new Thursday. ABC averaged a 1.2 key demo rating and The CW did a sports-inflated 0.5 key demo rating.

Overall, FOX averaged an estimated 8.63 million viewers and a 5.2 rating/8 share for Thursday night, beating the 4.9/8 and 7.39 million viewers for CBS. NBC took third with a 2.7/4 and 4.04 million viewers, nipping ABC's 2.6/4 and 3.98 million viewers. The CW averaged an unreliable 0.9/1 and 1.33 million viewers.

8 p.m. - "The X Factor" started primetime in first for FOX with 9.85 million viewers and a 3.4 rating among adults 18-49. CBS' repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" were second with 8.5 million viewers and a 2.2 key demo rating. ABC's "Wipeout" was third overall with 4.35 million viewers and tied for third with a 1.4 key demo rating. NBC got OK numbers for a "Saturday Night Live" special (5.16 million viewers and a 1.6 key demo) and less impressive numbers for the return of "Up All Night" (3.14 million viewers and a 1.3 key demo), which will both be hard-pressed to hold even that high next week with CBS' comedies premiering. A repeat of "The Vampire Diaries" averaged an inflated 1.19 million viewers and a 0.5 key demo rating.

9 p.m. - "Glee" won the 9 p.m. hour for FOX with 7.42 million viewers and a 2.9 rating among adults 18-49. CBS' repeats of "Two and a Half Men" finished second overall with 7.08 million viewers and third with a 1.8 key demo rating. ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" repeat was third overall with 4.18 million viewers and fourth with a 1.3 key demo rating. NBC was fourth overall with the premiere of the final season of "The Office" (4.32 million viewers and a 2.1 key demo rating) and the return of "Parks and Recreation" (3.52 million viewers and a 1.7 key demo rating). [You don't need advanced numbers to tell you those ratings aren't good and could drop next week against ABC and CBS' premieres.] The CW's "The Next" averaged 1.47 million viewers and a 0.6 key demo rating with a little outside help.

10 p.m. - CBS moved into first for the 10 p.m. hour with 6.585 million viewers and a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 for a repeat of "Person of Interest." NBC's new "Rock Center" was second with 4.05 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo rating, edging out the 3.415 million viewers and 1.0 key demo rating for ABC's repeat of "Scandal."

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

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.

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John

Pure speculation, but it seems as though NBC would have been better off flipping SNL and Up All Night. It's not a given, but if SNL had carried those numbers to 8:30 it potentially could have given a boost to both The Office and Parks, rather than giving a bump Up All Night, which then cratered and gave no help to the block at 9, which had to start fresh and stand on their own.
September 21, 2012 at 12:13PM EST Reply to Comment
- dan John - But why give the SNL bump to an established show with a set audience. There's no upside in boosting the audience of "The Office," which is done after this season. And the bump probably wouldn't have any impact on "Parks." So NBC gave the boost to what seemed to be (and turns out to be) the weakest of the Thursday comedies...
  
  -Daniel
  September 21, 2012 at 5:14PM EST
- John Not trying to sound snarky, but given the ratings compared to last year, perhaps the audience for The Office wasn't so "set". My thought was just that NBC knew Up All Night was going to do the worst of the 4 from the get go. The Office and Parks are going to carry NBC on Thursday nights for the full season. Why not take advantage of CBS and ABC repeats to get some momentum going for those two shows
  September 22, 2012 at 4:29PM EST
Pennywise

Please note there was also a pretty big market Thursday Night Football game last night. Very curious to see what the timeshifted numbers look like for NBC. I know I watched Parks and Rec during halftime.
September 21, 2012 at 12:36PM EST Reply to Comment
- dan Pennywise - Networks aren't going to be able to do business speculating on what small bump they might get from people timeshifting shows due to exactly how big the media markets were for the game. Yes, Thursday's game had the Giants, but it also had the Panthers who are from, by NFL standards, a small market and have virtually no national presence. So I wouldn't think last night's game would have any larger or smaller impact than every other Thursday night game this season. NBC got squished. There's really no viable alternate spin...
  
  -Daniel
  September 21, 2012 at 5:13PM EST