TV Ratings: 'Nashville' tumbles, 'Arrow' holds and 'Criminal Minds' leads CBS Wednesday
CBS wins overall and among young viewers
Stephen Amell of "Arrow"
Credit: The CW
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Although "Modern Family" reigned as Wednesday night's top program in most key measures, big drops for "Suburgatory" and "Nashville" took some of the luster off of ABC's numbers and helped CBS win the night.
Meanwhile, The CW got a good week-to-week holds (especially in its target demos) from "Arrow" and "Supernatural."
[Due to last night's FOX programming misadventures, there's basically no point in trying to figure out who watched anything on FOX on Wednesday night.]
Among adults 18-49, CBS averaged a 2.7 rating for Wednesday night, edging out ABC's 2.6 rating in the key demographic. FOX averaged a 2.1 rating to top the 1.5 rating for NBC. The CW was competitive with a 1.1 key demo rating for the night.
Overall, CBS averaged an estimated 10.81 million viewers and a 6.9 rating/11 share for Wednesday primetime. ABC's 5.1/8 and 8.01 million viewers followed in second. FOX's 3.6/6 and 6.02 million viewers beat the 5.42 million viewers and 3.6/6 for NBC. The CW averaged a 1.7/3 and 2.83 million viewers.
8 p.m. - "Survivor: Philippines" started primetime in first for CBS, averaging 10.11 million viewers and a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49, capitalizing on the FOX chaos for week-to-week growth. ABC was second with "The Middle" (8.345 million viewers and a 2.5 key demo) and "The Neighbors" (6.5 million viewers and a 1.9 key demo rating), which both added a few viewers. Whatever FOX aired in the hour averaged 5.17 million viewers and a 1.8 key demo rating. NBC was fourth overall and fifth in the key demo with "Animal Practice" (3.8 million viewers and a 1.0 key demo) and "Guys with Kids" (4.29 million viewers and a 1.4 key demo). The CW's "Arrow" dropped to 3.48 million viewers in its second airing, but remained steady with a 1.3 key demo rating, even rising slightly in a couple young male demos.
9 p.m. - "Criminal Minds" won the 9 p.m. hour overall for CBS with 11.775 million viewers and finished second with a 3.1 rating among adults 18-49. ABC was second overall and won the key demo with "Modern Family" (12.14 million viewers and a 4.6 key demo rating) and the return of "Suburgatory" (7.8 million and a 2.8 key demo rating). [Obviously that's a big and problematic drop for "Suburgatory," but ABC presumably hopes that as a returning show, it'll remain more steady in upcoming weeks than a newer show might.] Whatever FOX aired for the hour averaged 6.87 million viewers and a 2.4 key demo rating in third. NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" averaged 6.31 million viewers and a 1.6 key demo rating. On The CW, "Supernatural" averaged 2.185 million viewers and a 1.0 key demo rating, like "Arrow" losing viewers, but remaining steady in the demo.
10 p.m. - CBS finished its overall primetime sweep with 10.56 million viewers for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which also won the hour with a 2.4 key demo rating. ABC's "Nashville" took a big drop in its second week with 6.75 million viewers and a 2.0 key demo rating (and it was down to 6.395 million and a 1.9 key demo in its second half-hour). NBC's "Chicago Fire" averaged 5,91 million viewers and a 1.5 key demo rating in third, down from its premiere in both measures.
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.
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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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupVince
October 18, 2012 at 12:35PM EST Reply to CommentDan -
I know you took a baffled stab at this on a recent podcast, but any newfound insight as to why the hell Animal Practice is still getting airtime? As a Community fan I'm obviously biased regarding what should replace it, but honestly, reruns of the dopey Betty White hidden camera show would pull better ratings.
- Vince
dan Vince - Short-term it's on the air because NBC's gotta air something and the network might as well get SOMETHING for the money spent to produce the show, so in that respect it's better value than a repeat of the Betty White thing, though worse value than a new episode of the Betty White thing. Long-term? I have zero clue why, at least on the surface, it appears that NBC is planning on airing "Animal Practice" during sweeps. Of course, there's still two weeks before the first sweeps Wednesday, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least for NBC to make an announcement in the next day or two...
October 18, 2012 at 12:47PM ESTOr? Maybe NBC just loves the monkey.
-Daniel
dan And there's the release!
October 18, 2012 at 2:24PM ESTFarewell, Animal Practice...
-Daniel
Jobin00 Daniel,
October 18, 2012 at 2:37PM ESTDidn't Whitney have this same timeslot on the same day last year and put up awful-Animal Practice like numbers?
dan Jobin00 - Nope. "Whitney" put up "Guys with Kids"-like numbers in this time slot. Thus? IMPROVEMENT!!!!
October 18, 2012 at 2:40PM EST-Daniel
Jobin00 *pops the champagne*
October 18, 2012 at 2:53PM ESTI guess Animal Practice is evidence that old shows with awful ratings might not be so bad after all.
Balaji K
October 18, 2012 at 12:44PM EST Reply to CommentIt's safe to say that Nashville will not be a hot. The second half hour drop from 3.0 to 2.5 last week indicated that some of the Modern Family fans who watched Nashville, didn't like it. It can't afford any further drop. Even, the horrible Scandal's retention is around 2.0.
NBC should put Animal Practice out of it's misery. As you guys mentioned in the podcast, it's surprising that Animal Practice, Partners, 666 Park Avenue, The Mob Doctor and The Neighbours haven't been cancelled yet.
dan Balaji - The thing that might be important to remember is that if you take "Revenge" out of the equation, ABC's standards in that time period are REALLY low. Before "Revenge," that was a bad a Death Slot as there was on TV for a few years. So ABC's gonna be able to afford to expect a lower level of success there, especially if the DVR numbers are good. Maybe. That's me Devil's Advocating the situation...
October 18, 2012 at 12:50PM EST-Daniel
Balaji K Okay. I watched the pilot of Nashville with the stole intention of not watching another episode. I ended up liking it. I'm yet to watch the second episode but I will.
October 18, 2012 at 12:59PM ESTDepending on how Elementary does tomorrow, it's safe to say only Revolution and Arrow (by The CW standards) are hit of this fall season. It's easy to attribute Revolution success to The Voice but the retention of Suburgatory/Nashville and Scandal in the post Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy slots respectively are not nearly as good as Revolution.
Dan, do you think the premiere of AHS hampered Nashville? It would be interesting to know it's numbers.
Balaji K Man, an EDIT function is needed to correct typos. :-/
October 18, 2012 at 1:01PM ESTStormshadow4life
October 18, 2012 at 12:47PM EST Reply to CommentThoughts on Nashville's #s? How low would it need to go before it's in danger.
I enjoyed the pilot...haven't watched the 2nd ep yet.
dan Stormshadow4Life - Check out my reply to Balaji's comment. I think "Nashville" isn't in danger for a little while. That's a bad drop, but a lot of it can be blamed on poor "Suburgatory." Check back next week to see if "Suburgatory" falls more and if "Nashville" takes another plunge. And wait to see if the DVR numbers are OK, which I'd expect them to be.
October 18, 2012 at 12:52PM ESTToo soon to tell! But obviously those numbers aren't what ABC wanted....
-Daniel
ChampSkins
October 18, 2012 at 1:08PM EST Reply to CommentI really think networks need to take a long hard look at how they determine what shows should and should not get cancelled based on ratings alone. It has ALWAYS been about ratings, but there really should be other factors these people consider.
It will never happen... but wishful thinking.
Darius Ratings are the primary factor, but there are other factors sometimes like if a show is close to syndication, international sales, if it is co-produced with another company, DVD sales, etc. The CW apparently considers this, as most of their shows do horrid in the ratings but have a strong online presence or something.
October 18, 2012 at 1:19PM ESTdan Champskins - More and more, networks are looking at factors beyond ratings, or at least factors beyond overnight ratings. Live+3 ratings are close to the new standard and Live+7 ratings have value as well. And as Darius notes, The CW has begun deprioritizing ratings entirely in favor of an utterly mysterious formula that includes streams, online downloads and other unquantifiable measurements.
October 18, 2012 at 1:41PM ESTThings are changing. Slowly. And five years too late...
-Daniel
Rex
October 18, 2012 at 1:27PM EST Reply to CommentI don't want to sound ignorant here, but why does ABC never consider moving Modern Family to the 9:30 slot where it can provide a better lead-in to a heavily-touted drama like Nashville? You'd think Modern Family has an established audience that will follow it to one half-hour later, but no one ever has this discussion. I'm missing something - what is it?
John My guess: Comedies will retain an audience coming off of a comdedy more than dramas, so in moving Modern Family to 9:30, ABC would not get as much of a lead in impact for the 10pm drama as it did for whatever comedy is after Modern Family, PLUS the show before Modern Family (presuming it was previously after Modern Family) would lose a huge portion of its lead in. There are probably a plethora of reasons though
October 18, 2012 at 1:36PM ESTdan Rex - What John said is probably the basic reason. You could move "Modern Family" to 9:30 and that would give "Nashville" a bit of an artificial boost, but realistically speaking, the two shows are completely incompatible. Of course, ratings seem to indicate that nearly everything is incompatible with "Modern Family," though even that isn't exactly right. There's a number that shows airing post-"Modern Family" do that as we saw last year with "Cougar Town" and "Happy Endings," they don't do without "Modern Family." "Suburgatory" had a year to establish its audience and retained out of "The Middle" better than "The Neighbors" has, so maybe "Suburgatory" simply had its audience and it didn't draw new viewers post-"Modern Family" for some reason?
October 18, 2012 at 1:45PM ESTIt's all a mystery!
-Daniel
Balaji K If a program that starts at 9PM on a different network is better, people will watch it than say Suburgatory starting at 9PM and might continue watching that network till 10PM. So, I guess the best and highly rated show always anchors the hour.
October 18, 2012 at 1:48PM ESTS
October 18, 2012 at 2:14PM EST Reply to CommentI thought Nashville was going to be huge. Maybe if they called it "CSI: Nashville" it'd get better ratings.
towatei
October 18, 2012 at 2:46PM EST Reply to CommentAs "666 Park Avenue" is sure to be canceled anytime soon, "Nashville" could take its place in the Sunday linup. It would do a lot better there, as it is more compatible with "Revenge".
dan Towatei - "666 Park Avenue" is very compatible with "Revenge" and it's tanked. ABC unlikely to spend the amount promoting "Nashville" on Wednesday, have it fail there and send it to Sunday with a new launch. The network'll either be patient with it on Wednesday and pray it levels or even builds or that'll probably be it. I suspect one of the new dramas will get the Sunday slot eventually...
October 18, 2012 at 2:59PM EST-Daniel