Spotted Ratings, Friday 2/1/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was a boringly steady evening for most Friday shows. The only movement of real note was that Kitchen Nightmares and Nikita both regressed from the season highs they posted against no real competition last week.

• NBC had the two-hour NAACP Image Awards, which hit the same rating as last year.

The Question, Tuesday 2/5/13: Will NBC Smash the Expectations?

Yes, folks, NBC is back... to where they were a year ago. That's been the harsh reality of almost all of NBC's between-Voice hiatus. 365 days after NBC's 2012 big Super Monday, NBC premieres the same show they launched on that night: the Broadway drama Smash. Hopes are not quite so high this year; despite its surprising Golden Globe nomination, it lost almost all its critical support over the course of season one. And this year, it loses its big lead-in. Will NBC Smash the expectations? That's The Question for Tuesday, February 5, 2013.

The War of 18-49, Drop Dead Diva

DROP DEAD DIVA (LIFETIME)

Scheduling history: Aside from the second half of the two-hour second season finale and sixth season premiere, all of Drop Dead Diva's run aired on Sundays at 9:00.

The Question, Monday 2/4/13: Can CBS Engage 8:30 Viewers on Super Monday?

The show that won't die is back. Rules of Engagement begins its seventh (!) season tonight, and it's coming off a year in which its 18-49 average actually upticked slightly due to a surging The Big Bang Theory lead-in. It won't have quite as favorable a timeslot this year, returning to the Monday 8:30 hour to pair with How I Met Your Mother. But it might benefit from the promotion for the Monday lineup during last night's Super Bowl. Can CBS Engage 8:30 viewers on Super Monday? That's The Question for Monday, February 4, 2013.

War of 18-49 Update, Gossip Girl (2012-13)

Let's take a look at the 2012 season (the sixth and final overall) of Gossip Girl on the CW.

First Two Weeks, The Following

WEEK ONE
Kevin Bacon's The Following continued in the recent Fox Monday tradition of premiering in the low 3's (The Mob Doctor excepted). It began with a 3.2 demo, making it the second-strongest drama premiere of the season to date. Considering it faced pretty much the "normal" winter competition (CBS original comedies, The Bachelor, The Biggest Loser) and it did so largely as a self-starter (lead-in Bones had a 2.3), that was a pretty solid start.

The Question Results Through 1/31/13

Here are the results and individual standings through January 31 for the ratings prediction game The Question:

The Question, Sunday 2/3/13: Will Elementary Be a Super Lead-out?

EDIT: Not sure it'll matter, but I'm cutting off entries for this one at 6:00pm ET on Super Bowl Sunday.

On Sunday, TV's biggest night is back. Many will be most curious about whether the Super Bowl can once again set a record for most-viewed event in the history of television. But for TV ratings junkies, the performance of the lead-out program is arguably more interesting. Successful lead-outs like Grey's Anatomy, Undercover Boss and The Voice have been launched to great heights by the exposure. For less-viewed lead-outs, the ad rates may be huge, but the long-term ratings needle doesn't move at all. Will Elementary be a super lead-out? That's The Question for Sunday, February 3, 2013.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/31/13: DOA No Harm

WHAT MATTERS:

• I thought I was predicting Do No Harm would be dead on arrival, but as most of y'all knew, it was even deader than that... by a long shot. It began with a 0.9 demo, which I believe ties last spring's Bent as the lowest in-season weeknight scripted premiere on the big four evah. It couldn't. Even. Premiere. Above. The. Rock Center. Average. This will present a pretty tough situation for NBC, especially considering 1600 Penn will be the lead-in going forward. This is what I would do.

• To make Do No Harm look even more brutal, NBC was respectable in the first two hours, especially with the spiking series finale of 30 Rock. That was the show's biggest number since the middle of last season.

• Fox's recent string of strong nights finally ended as American Idol got its first dose of original The Big Bang Theory and dropped by about 15% from last week. Glee continued what has become a pretty consistent tradition of dropping large in its second week back from hiatus. That is a pretty pathetic level for an Idol lead-out. Fox should be better utilizing this slot, but with what???

• As for Big Bang, it had a strong outing and killed Idol head-to-head, but it was noticeably below its early 2013 romps against little competition. Person of Interest held the closest to those recent numbers among the CBS shows, while Elementary limped into its post-Super Bowl showcase with a lower-end outing.

• To round out a pretty interesting night, Scandal has juuuust about closed the gap with Grey's Anatomy, and Beauty and the Beast continues to show some surprising signs of not-complete-ineptitude in its early 2013 run.

War of 18-49 Update, Fringe (2012-13)

Let's take a look at the 2012 season (the fifth and final overall) of Fringe on Fox.