Spotted Ratings, Monday 5/14/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• Summer arrived a couple weeks early, as NBC premiered the new season of America's Got Talent with Howard Stern. That's down 14% from last year's premiere (a 4.3 on May 31) but a little ahead of the previous couple premieres. So Stern didn't produce a game-changing splash, but he didn't really bomb either, and the competition is gonna clear up fast in the coming weeks.

• And ABC had summer staple The Bachelorette premiering a week earlier than usual. It's actually pretty encouraging that it's only down a couple tenths from last year's 2.8 premiere, because this time it matched lead-in Dancing with the Stars, while last year DWTS was about two full points stronger.

• It was finale Monday on CBS, where a one-hour How I Met Your Mother supported my "it's Truly stronger than 2 Broke Girls" theory (2BG got a 3.3 in the same slot last week). They also got a bounce with the wedding on Mike and Molly, while Hawaii Five-0 seemed to enjoy not facing Castle.

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
Dancing with the Stars Mon	15.79	2.6	21%	-4%	n/a	-14%	9/9	-5%	n/a	2.99
The Bachelorette	8.05	2.6	41%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	+4%	+0%	2.58
How I Met Your Mother	8.58	3.7	55%	+12%	n/a	-10%	17/23	-11%	n/a	4.48
Two and a Half Men	11.55	3.9	43%	+3%	+12%	-22%	17/24	-23%	+5%	4.16
Mike and Molly	11.79	3.4	37%	+10%	+3%	-9%	14/23	-13%	-13%	3.60
Hawaii Five-0	11.42	2.7	30%	+17%	+10%	-6%	15/23	-7%	-21%	2.56
America's Got Talent Mon	10.48	3.7	45%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	+20%	n/a	4.32
Smash	5.96	1.8	39%	+0%	-3%	-22%	13/15	+10%	-51%	1.44
Bones	7.21	1.9	34%	+0%	n/a	-22%	12/13	-22%	n/a	2.16
House	6.45	2.2	44%	+5%	+0%	-13%	16/21	-8%	+16%	2.41
Gossip Girl	1.14	0.6	67%	+50%	n/a	+2%	6/24	+2%	n/a	0.66
Hart of Dixie	1.60	0.6	48%	+0%	+50%	-7%	8/22	-9%	+0%	0.64

KEY (click to expand)

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.
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.
Tavg - A18-49 percent difference from its timeslot's previous original entertainment average 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.

Much more detail on these numbers at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.