Spotted Ratings, Sunday 1/8/12: Firmly Flopped (FINALS)

WHAT MATTERS:

• Yeah, so, in case you haven't heard, Tim Tebow gets big ratings. The game as a whole was massive with 42.37 million viewers and a 15.3 demo, but it got even more ridiculous near the end; the 7:30 half-hour averaged 51.3 million viewers and a ridiculous 18.4/45 demo for CBS. Needless to say, that lead-in was pretty helpful to the rest of the CBS evening. 60 Minutes got (according to my records) its best demo ratings since November 2008, The Good Wife hit its best demo since March 2010 and CSI: Miami had its best since March 2011.

• It was an encouraging fall for new shows, but midseason sure isn't off to a good start. NBC's The Firm was totally dead on arrival. That tied A Gifted Man as the weakest premiere on the big four this season to date, and it was ahead of just a few of the huge flops of 2010-11 (Lone Star, Chaos, The Paul Reiser Show). With 22 episodes ordered for the co-production, this is a pretty daunting result for NBC. Perhaps in Thursday 10/9c we have just found our new timeslot for Awake?

• Perhaps the biggest surprise on this Sunday was the rebound for Once Upon a Time, which completely reversed its alarming December trend and got all the way back up to within a tenth of the level it had so admirably maintained in its first four weeks. This came despite having to face the end of Tebow Time in most of the country. Things soured from there for ABC, though. Desperate Housewives was also up from the last original, but not by nearly as much as its lead-in, and Pan Am returned for its final run of episodes two tenths below any previous result.

• On Fox, The Simpsons got absolutely snowed under by Tebow Time and tied a series low, and things didn't improve much across the rest of the animation evening.

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
America's Funniest Home Videos	5.80	1.4	31%	-26%	n/a	-13%	7/9	-24%	n/a	1.23
Once Upon a Time	10.35	3.7	46%	+28%	-13%	+4%	5/8	+22%	+164%	2.81
Desperate Housewives	8.84	3.0	43%	+11%	+16%	+3%	3/10	+3%	-19%	2.06
Pan Am	3.96	1.3	42%	-13%	+11%	-35%	10/10	-35%	-57%	0.94
NFL Overrun	42.37	15.3	46%	+629%	n/a	+65%	1/14	+223%	n/a	17.86
60 Minutes	18.07	4.8	34%	+66%	+63%	+71%	1/15	+58%	-69%	1.46
The Good Wife	11.65	2.7	30%	+23%	+45%	+31%	1/12	+10%	-44%	1.75
CSI: Miami	10.46	2.6	32%	+24%	+23%	+21%	1/12	+17%	-4%	2.34
Dateline Sun	6.23	1.2	25%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	-66%	n/a	0.94
The Firm	6.32	1.4	28%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	-82%	+17%	1.13
Bob's Burgers (R)	1.84	0.7	49%	+133%	n/a	+40%	1/3	-8%	n/a	0.57
The Cleveland Show (R)	2.36	1.0	54%	-23%	-53%	-1%	5/12	-34%	+43%	0.90
The Simpsons	5.07	2.3	58%	-23%	-44%	-32%	10/10	-34%	+130%	1.67
The Cleveland Show	4.48	2.2	63%	-4%	-23%	-6%	6/8	-10%	-4%	1.66
Family Guy	6.23	3.1	64%	+0%	-4%	-6%	6/10	-9%	+41%	2.34
American Dad!	4.79	2.2	59%	-12%	+0%	-13%	7/8	-19%	-29%	1.42

KEY (with much more detail at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page):

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.
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 average for programming of the same type this season.
Lead - A18-49 percent difference from lead-in program.
TRUE - True Strength, a metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in.

(R) - Repeat.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.