Broadcast Network Ratings Roundup: Jan. 23-29

CBS's 'Big Bang' Surpasses Fox's 'Idol'

The CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory had a slightly larger audience than Fox's American Idol during the half hour when the shows were in head-to-head competition last Thursday, the Nielsen Co. said. The advantage was slight — 16.13 million to 15.56 million — but significant. It is believed to be the first scripted series to beat the Fox juggernaut in head-to-head competition.
Associated Press,

NEW YORK (AP) -- The geeks have bragging rights over the superstar strivers.

The CBS comedy "The Big Bang Theory" had a slightly larger audience than Fox's "American Idol" during the half hour when the shows were in head-to-head competition on Thursday, the Nielsen Co. said. The advantage was slight — 16.13 million to 15.56 million — but significant. It is believed to be the first scripted series to beat the Fox juggernaut in head-to-head competition.

Story continues after the ad

That speaks to a slow start for "American Idol" this year, even though the show's Wednesday edition was the top-rated program of the week.

"The Big Bang Theory," meanwhile, is up 15 percent in viewership this season in what has been a strong year for comedy. Syndication may be a big factor in its success. It's the first year reruns of the comedy from past seasons are being shown elsewhere on the TV dial, and that often attracts more viewers to the fresh episodes.

The comedy's success is also helping Rob Schneider's new sitcom "Rob," which immediately follows it on CBS' schedule. "Rob" finished among Nielsen's top 10 last week.

Fox News Channel is celebrating a milestone. The end of January marks 10 years since it eclipsed CNN as the top-rated cable news network, a status it has not relinquished. Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes said he was "extremely proud" of the achievement and recognizes how difficult it is to sustain such a level of success.

Also on Tuesday, HBO announced that after one week on the air, the horseracing drama "Luck" starring Dustin Hoffman has been renewed for a second season. An estimated 3.3 million people saw the first episode in either one of the three airings on Sunday or during a December sneak preview.

CBS was the top broadcast network with an average of 9.3 million viewers in primetime last week (5.9 rating, 10 share). Fox averaged 8 million (4.7, 7), NBC had 6.1 million (3.8, 6), ABC had 5.7 million (3.6, 6), the CW had 1.1 million (0.8, 1) and Ion Television had 1.1 million (0.7, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.7 million average (1.8, 3), Telemundo had 1.4 million (0.7, 1), TeleFutura had 610,000 (0.3, 1), Estrella had 220,000 and Azteca 190,000 (both 0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 9.3 million viewers (6.2, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 8.2 million (5.4, 10) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.7 million viewers (4.5, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

(Note: The "American Idol" number from Thursday on the list exceeds "The Big Bang Theory" because it is an average audience for the competition's full hour on the air, not just the half hour when the comedy was airing on CBS.)

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 23-29. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.

1. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 19.67 million.

2. "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 17.14 million.

3. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 16.13 million.

4. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 14.26 million.

5. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.82 million.

6. "Undercover Boss," CBS, 13.15 million.

7. "NCIS," CBS, 12.55 million.

8. NFL Football: Pro Bowl, NBC, 12.5 million.

9. "Touch," Fox, 12.01 million.

10. "Rob," CBS, 11.5 million.

11. "Pro Bowl Pregame Show," NBC, 11.39 million.

12. "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.19 million.

13. "The Good Wife," CBS, 11.08 million.

14. "Once Upon a Time," ABC, 10.91 million.

15. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 10.57 million.

16. "Person of Interest," CBS, 10.54 million.

17. "Castle," ABC, 10.05 million.

18. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 9.78 million.

19. "American Idol Encore," Fox, 9.642 million.

20. "The Mentalist," CBS, 9.641 million.

Edit Article

Tags

Comments (0) -

Today's Top Stories

Classifieds

The Market

Symbol Last Change (%)
Nasdaq 2778.79 +0.00 (+0.00)
NYSE 7427.74 +0.00 (+0.00)
S&P 500 1295.22 +0.00 (+0.00)
Updated 05/21 9:30a ET Quotes delayed at least 20 mins.
Source: Financial Content

Ratings

Overnights, adults 18-49 for May 17, 2012
  • 1.
    3.0/9
  • 2.
    2.5/7
  • 3.
    2.4/7
  • 4.
    1.5/4
  • 5.
    1.1/3
  • 6.
    0.3/1
Source: Nielsen
Reviews
Opinions
Features
  • David Wiegand

    Fans of Sex and the City have finally gotten their wish: Their beloved sex-focused sitcom is back on the air ... sort of. The four women have become four men, of course, and the writing isn't as good. Oh, and the laugh track so annoying, it's offensive. And did I mention that the costumes would be considered fashionable if you were holding a yard sale? Men at Work on TBS is almost quaint, it's so old fashioned. If it had any meat on its bones, you'd be tempted to say it's the sadly ignoble epitome of TV's long-festering emasculated-men syndrome. But it's so much of a big, forgettable, innocuous shrug, it's not even worth any actual vitriol.

  • Mike Hale

    The USA Network's motto is "Characters Welcome." Apparently they're especially welcome if they resemble Oscar Madison and Felix Unger. Already stocked with Odd Couple knockoffs in Psych and White Collar, USA adds to its inventory Common Law, another comic crime-fighting show about mismatched partners. But this latest entry exhibits very little of that kind of spark as it tries to wring laughs from the juxtaposition of counseling and police work. It looks too flat and schematically plotted to succeed as the type of lightweight summer fun we’ve come to expect from USA.

  • Joanne Ostrow

    Johnny Carson: Fantastic entertainer, miserable human being. That's the lasting message of Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, the new PBS American Masters film, a rich history of a rare product of television who dominated the small screen for decades. Unprecedented access to personal archives plus all existing episodes of The Tonight Show (1962-92), distinguishes this film by Peter Jones. Telling interviews with family and colleagues, including second wife Joanne Carson, former Tonight Show executive producer Peter Lassally and a number of biographers sharpen the picture. The clips are carefully selected to illustrate specific personality traits, the performance highlights are given context and meaning beyond funny lines and memorable moments.

  • Hank Stuever

    AMC's The Pitch is a sharply-made if slightly off-putting reality series that follows different advertising agencies each week as they compete for new accounts. The inspiration for the show — made clear by its own ad campaign — is to harness some of the verve generated by the network's acclaimed Mad Men. The Pitch has a way of making the ad world seem like a real downer — a repugnant exercise in egotism laced with depressing bouts of creative compromise.

  • Tim Goodman

    HBO's Veep stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as former Sen. Selina Meyer, who accepts the vice presidential duty and regrets it almost immediately: She has no real power and gets muscled by the Senate, Congress and the (so-far-unseen) president, who delegates all the truly crappy jobs to her. Louis-Dreyfus has found perhaps her best post-Seinfeld role and takes to it with such fervor — the constant swearing, the barely veiled desire to become president, the unhappy give-and-take with other politicians and a delightful disdain for average citizens — that you can't help but applaud what is clearly an Emmy-worthy effort. Her work alone makes Veep a gem, but there's even more to like.

This advertisement will close automatically in  second(s). You will see this ad no more than once a day. Skip ad