Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/8/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: The Grammys (8.3) adjusted down another two tenths in finals, putting it down a rather unfortunate 16% year-to-year.

• AMC UPDATE: Better Call Saul (3.4) had the largest adults 18-49 premiere in cable history, retaining a low-40s percentage of its The Walking Dead (8.0) lead-in. The only other post-TWD scripted launch was the Hell on Wheels pilot (1.9), which had better retention but out of a much much much smaller Dead (3.4). The ratings actually closely resembled a premiere/finale episode of the TWD aftershow Talking Dead, which opened the fall season at 3.50 and closed at 3.33.
• As for The Walking Dead (8.0), amazingly this will go as the first down year-to-year episode in the 4.5 season history of the series. The previous spring season opened at 8.17. It was just a few tenths above the fall 2014 finale (7.58) and nearly 10% behind the fall premiere (8.65).

• The three-hour preliminary ratings for the Grammy Awards (8.8) were down 13% vs. the 10.1 preliminary (ultimately 9.9 final) for the same block last season. UPDATE: Time zone-adjusted fast nationals say the Grammys got 25.3 million viewers and an 8.5 A18-49 rating. The latter was down 14% vs. last year's final.

• Only Fox tried anything of consequence vs. the Grammys and AMC's big The Walking Dead/Better Caul Saul premiere night, and the comedies went even lower than the last airings two weeks ago. The Simpsons (1.2) and Family Guy (1.4) were each down about 30% vs. Grammy night last year, and Bob's Burgers (1.0) took a similar decline vs. the year-ago American Dad! Only Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2) held up better. It is worth noting that last year's results came in late January with no Walking Dead in the mix.

• In the battle of filler between ABC and NBC, ABC's theatrical The Hunger Games (1.1) was a decisive winner over NBC's three-hour American Ninja Warrior repeat (0.6). More on AMC to come!

FULL TABLE:

Info		Show						Timeslot		True
	A18-49	Skew	Last		LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
America's Funniest Home Videos	1.4	27%	-18%	-0.3	n/a	4/13	n/a	+250%	+8%	1.5
Movie: The Hunger Games	1.1	40%					n/a	+69%	+18%	1.4
							ABC:	+100%	+15%
60 Minutes	1.5	20%	+36%	+0.4	n/a	13/19	+36%	+329%	+30%	1.6
Grammy Awards	8.3	42%					-16%	+1617%	+333%	6.5
							CBS:	+1367%	+283%
Dateline (R)	0.9	20%						-98%	-84%	1.1
American Ninja Warrior (R)	0.6	33%						-98%	-92%	0.9
							NBC:	-98%	-92%
Mulaney	0.5	52%	+25%	+0.1	n/a	9/12	n/a	+67%	-17%	0.9
The Simpsons (R)	0.7	56%						+40%	+0%	0.7
The Simpsons	1.2	55%	-14%	-0.2	+0.0	13/13	n/a	+100%	+9%	1.6
Brooklyn Nine-Nine	1.2	59%	+0%	+0.0	-0.2	14/15	-14%	+300%	+9%	1.5
Family Guy	1.4	63%	-13%	-0.2	+0.0	10/10	n/a	+180%	-7%	1.6
Bob's Burgers	1.0	65%	-17%	-0.2	-0.2	9/11	n/a	+100%	-17%	1.2
							Fox:	+122%	-3%
							Big4:	-73%	-20%

KEY (click to expand)

A18-49 - Adults 18-49 rating. Percentage of US TV-owning adults 18-49 watching the program.
Skew - Percentage of adults 18-49 within the show's total viewership.
Last - A18-49 difference (percent and numerical) from the show's previous episode.
LeLa - A18-49 difference between the show's lead-in and its lead-in for the previous episode.
Rank - The A18-49 rating's rank among the show's episodes so far this season.
y2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the show's rating a year ago.
TLa - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one week ago.
Ty2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one year ago.
True - A metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in. PRELIMINARY CALCULATION. For finals, see SpotVault.

(R) - Repeat.

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

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.