> It was a good night to be airing football. ABC:  PAN AM has moved swiftly from “potential hit” to “possible survivor,” but it’s not time to bring out the air sickness bags just yet.  The real culprit of the night was DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, which was down a staggering 35% from last year’s season average.  […]

> After 2 nights of sinking numbers, stability returned to the ratings on Wednesday. ABC:  All in all, a good night.  The first half of the evening was down a tenth or so here and there, but the network got help where it mattered.  HAPPY ENDINGS is now hitting its stride in viewership as well […]

Note: Local broadcast coverage of the ESPN NFL Monday Night Football doubleheader impacted the fast-affiliate nationals below. ABC numbers are inflated slightly by local pre-emptions in Houston for the early game and San Francisco-Oakland for the late game. NBC numbers inflated slightly by a pre-emption in New Orleans for the early game. In Denver, the […]

> Forget about prestige drama and comedy:  it turned out all NBC needed was some dining on bugs. NBC:  FEAR FACTOR returned to the airwaves with a tremendous 3.4 average over 2 hours.  This is great news for a network that sorely needs some, but it’s worth noting that in this same holiday period last […]

> Welcome back to Network Scorecard, where we consider the perplexing case of AMERICAN IDOL. FOX:  It’s now clear that the biggest story of the 2011-12 television season is the slump in established reality-competition franchises.  Idol joins Dancing With the Stars and The Biggest Loser with a nearly 30% decline from last year’s Wednesday average.  […]

  A quiet night everywhere. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons follow […]

> Viewers could tell that REVENGE wasn’t FOR REAL. ABC:  Serialized dramas repeat notoriously badly, so the network had the clever idea of filling in the spring schedule gap with a “news” show about true-life crimes that presumably are similar to those in the show, albeit without Emily Van Camp or Madeleine Stowe.  The resulting […]

  A soft return for THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). […]