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The X Factor won Thursday (the fourth of the season) with a 3.6 Adult 18-49 rating. The Thursday track for X Factor has been 4.3…3.9…4.0…3.6. The 3.6 will probably go up to a 3.7 or 3.8 in the official nationals later today, but FOX has to be mildly disappointed there is not a 4 in front of the eventual rating. But a 3.6 represents a victory on the night, and that is a sad statement about network TV in 2011.
CBS is #2 in the fast nationals with a 3.1 for the night, up 0.2 from last week. Big Bang Theory logged a 4.4 in its 8:00 time period, while a repeat special Big Bang episode at 8:30 scored an impressive 3.7 rating. Person of Interest did a 2.7 last night (four-week track: 3.1…2.7…2.6…2.7). The heavy promotional support for the JJ Abrams drama seems to have stopped the bleeding. The Mentalist narrowly won the 10 pm hour with a 2.5 (four-week track: 2.8…2.6…2.7…2.5).
ABC is #3 last night with a 2.4 rating, up from a 2.1 last week. Charlie’s Angels was actually up 0.1 from last week to a 1.3 rating with zero promotion. Grey’s Anatomy was up 0.3 to a 3.4, and Private Practice was up a similar amount to a 2.4. A bit of good news for The Alphabet.
In contrast, NBC stayed in fourth place, declining 0.1 to a 1.9 rating for the night. While Community was up 0.2 from last week to a 1.7 and Parks & Recreation was up 0.1 to a 2.1, Whitney declined a full 0.3 to a series low 2.0 (despite The Office holding steady at a 3.2 rating). Making matters worse, Prime Suspect (which was promoted heavily) declined another 0.2 to a series low 1.3 rating. Whitney‘s retention level from The Office has sunk to a quite bad 62% (after starting at 85% and then stablizing for a bit in the low-70% range). With a full season order, there could be many, many weeks of tough ratings at 9:30.
The CW was up 0.1 from last week to a 1.1 rating. The Vampire Diaries increased 0.2 to a credible 1.4 rating, while Secret Circle is stuck at a 0.8.
We will update the season to date numbers after Sunday’s ratings.
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