Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 3/1/11: Idol Back on Tuesday

WHAT MATTERS:

• American Idol was back on Tuesday, where it regularly aired for its first nine seasons. Its 7.6 demo was about equal to what its combined broadcast competition got.

• Every program that aired in the 8:00 hour against Idol was down double digits from its last original, and NCIS: LA (which half-aired against it) also took a big hit. Still a Death Star!

• Raising Hope was certainly no smash given the Idol lead-in for the first time, as the half-hour program dropped 57%, but the 3.3 demo was a series high, making it just the third new program this year to exceed its series premiere demo. 

• Meanwhile, 20/20 interviewed Charlie Sheen and hit a 3.2 demo, well better than any previous airing of the newsmagazine this season. The Good Wife seemed utterly unaffected, actually rising against the increased competition, while Parenthood did take a hit (but a hit about equal to that taken by its lead-in).

Demos Year-to-Year, Tuesday 3/1/11

Actually a fairly healthy number of show comparisons for this evening, though I should note that the Parenthood comparison is against the 3.1 for the series premiere in 2010.

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 2/27/11 - CBS Reality, Spartacus, Shedding for the Wedding, Oscar, Knicks/Heat

Here's your Ratings Five-Spot for the week ending February 27, 2011:

CBS Reality Franchises - It's been a few weeks since I've done one of these, and one of the standout stories for me over this time has been the downturn of CBS' Survivor and The Amazing Race, both of which premiered at series low levels and then took a dip in week two. Survivor can point to being regularly scheduled against American Idol for the first time, while the Race went up against Oscar in week two, but they're still potentially troublesome starts for franchises that have been pretty consistent recently.

Spotted Ratings, Saturday 2/26/11

WHAT MATTERS:

•  Well, it is Saturday... but I guess I should note that Fox had a well-above average night, with Most Wanted hitting an outright season high and both Cops half-hours close to that distinction.

SRs, Monday 2/28/11: Two and a Half Men, Three and Three-Tenths Rating

WHAT MATTERS:

• I'm working on a post (hopefully for late this week) about repeat telecasts in general, and that seems fitting because Two and a Half Men hit a season high 3.3 for a repeat, up three ticks week-to-week despite facing a decently-rated live Sheen interview with Piers Morgan. Only one other repeat telecast in the 2010-11 season has done better (Modern Family's 3.5 on 2/2/11).

• Almost all other week-to-week moves were fairly insignificant (single digits percentage-wise), but it was another good week for ABC's lineup, with both shows at or near season-best levels.

Demos Year-to-Year, Monday 2/28/11

We're out of Olympic territory, but it still isn't a great evening for comparisons as a lot of stuff is in repeat mode, and in The Bachelor's case there's a non-finale vs. finale comparison. The show was actually 17% behind last season's third-from-the-end episode.

Demos Year-to-Year, Sunday 2/27/11

For the last time, NBC had the Olympics (closing ceremony) last year. I'm also not including ABC because they had the Academy Awards this year but not last year. The show was down 11% from last year's show on March 7.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 2/27/11: Oscar Domination

WHAT MATTERS:

• Well, let's go with the Academy Awards. Oscar's 11.8 was down 11% year-to-year (from last year's 13.3) but it still grabbed the eyeballs of approximately 75% of adults 18-49 big-4 watchers. 

• And that broadcast share woulda been higher if not for CBS throwing original programming against it in The Amazing Race and CSI: Miami. Since Race is a serialized reality show, that's not so much of a surprise, but I'd say Miami might have been a bit surprising. Both hit series lows.

Opinion Five-Spot, WE 2/27/11 - V, Parenthood, Survivor, The Office, Fringe

Here's my Opinion Five-Spot for the week ending February 27, 2011 (and to some extent the week before that as well, which I took off):

V - The alien drama is sitting squarely on the fence ratings-wise, but I have to say I think I'm at a point where I wouldn't mind seeing more. Perhaps it's just the big void left behind by Lost, but the show has more forward momentum than when I gave up on it last year, and I think it's been a good idea to pit Anna's daughter (and mother, played by Jane Badler) against her. Downsides: the addition of Bret Harrison was pretty much a non-starter, and Erica's son remains a pretty terrible character, but... at least he got a haircut?

Demos Year-to-Year, Friday 2/25/11

NBC had the Olympics last year! (Only one more post in which I have to say that...)