¡Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/12/12! (FINALS)

WHAT MATTERS:

• The second week of January is always interesting on Wednesday and Thursday because it's the season's last week without American Idol. The Death Star's back next week, but for this week, it was all about CBS. They started with above-average Thursday ratings from The Big Bang Theory, which should be the week's top entertainment program, and followed with a strong, time-period improving premiere from Rob and series highs from Person of Interest. Rob got CBS' second-best 8:30 numbers since they started putting comedies here and was a tick stronger than fall 2010's $#*! My Dad Says premiere. But, again, Idol looms.

• Fox debuted The Finder to shockingly weak results. The show dropped a whooping 29% of its Bones lead-in. The good news is that its lead-in will probably about triple next week, so it's tougher to give up on this show than it would be with most with results like this.

• Hey, I guess timeslots really don't matter, as Up All Night opened up even with the previous night's Whitney and well below my apparently naive expectations. But I will just note in passing that Up All Night faced as much competition as it's pretty much ever gonna face, while Whit on Wednesday faced as little as it's ever gonna face.

• Elsewhere on NBC, the return of 30 Rock also disappointed, down nearly a third from last year's 2.6 premiere at 8:30. It matched Community's high for the season and was 14% ahead of its average, but presumably it's not going to go up from here with Idol back next week. And The Firm posted absolutely mortifying ratings and dropped 29% in its Thursday 10/9c debut.

• Against an onslaught of competition, ABC came back to earth in a big way. Winter Wipeout, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice were all down 15%+ from last week.

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
Winter Wipeout	7.12	2.2	40%	-19%	n/a	-4%	2/3	+40%	n/a	2.17
Grey's Anatomy	10.71	3.8	45%	-16%	-19%	+0%	4/10	+10%	+73%	3.68
Private Practice	6.55	2.3	45%	-15%	-16%	-9%	7/10	-15%	-39%	2.00
The Big Bang Theory	16.13	5.3	42%	+15%	n/a	+7%	2/12	+8%	n/a	5.87
Rob	13.47	4.1	39%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	+22%	-23%	3.63
Person of Interest	14.86	3.2	28%	+14%	+52%	+16%	1/11	+17%	-22%	2.75
The Mentalist	13.65	2.7	25%	+0%	+14%	+2%	3/11	+2%	-16%	2.54
30 Rock	4.47	1.8	52%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	+14%	n/a	1.75
Parks and Recreation	4.09	1.9	59%	+6%	+20%	-3%	7/11	-1%	+6%	1.81
The Office	5.90	2.9	63%	+0%	+6%	-9%	7/11	-9%	+53%	2.80
Up All Night	4.24	2.0	60%	+5%	+53%	-7%	7/12	-9%	-31%	1.66
The Firm	4.23	1.0	30%	-29%	+67%	-29%	2/2	-23%	-50%	0.82
Bones	8.64	2.4	36%	+0%	n/a	-13%	5/6	-30%	n/a	2.40
The Finder	5.50	1.7	40%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	-54%	-29%	1.42
The Vampire Diaries	2.86	1.2	54%	-20%	n/a	-14%	9/11	-14%	n/a	1.24
The Secret Circle	1.93	0.8	53%	+0%	-20%	-12%	7/11	-11%	-33%	0.66

KEY (with much more detail at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page):

Viewers - The total number of viewers (age 2+, in millions) that watched the program.
A18-49 - Adults 18-49 rating. Percentage of US TV-owning adults 18-49 watching the program.
Share - Adults 18-49 share. Percentage of US TV-watching adults 18-49 watching the program.
Skew - Percentage of the total audience that falls in the 18-49 demo.
Last - A18-49 percent difference from previous episode.
Lead - A18-49 percent difference from lead-in program.
LeLa - A18-49 percent difference between the show's lead-in and its lead-in for the previous episode.
Avg - A18-49 percent difference from the show's average demo for previous original episodes this season.
Rank - The A18-49 rating's rank among the show's episodes that have aired so far this season.
TRUE - True Strength, a metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in. (Note: these are PRELIMINARY TRUE calculations. Finals come next week.)

(R) - Repeat.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.