Spotted Ratings, Thursday 1/19/12: Big(ger-than-Idol) Bang Theory (FINALS)

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Thursday premiere of American Idol should end up down year-to-year by a similar amount as the Wednesday premiere. After finals, it's at -27% from last year's 7.8. Amazingly, it actually lost head-to-head to other entertainment programming, as the 100th episode of The Big Bang Theory barely edged it head-to-head and, like Modern Family, was virtually unaffected by the Death Star week-to-week.

• CBS had more good news as the evening continued, with Rob down just 15% in week two despite the drastic increase in competition. Person of Interest fell in finals but was still steady at last week's high, and then The Mentalist broke 3.0 for the first time this season.

• Week two of The Finder, as predicted, was up a good bit from its 1.7 premiere last week thanks to a 3.2-point bigger lead-in. That's the good way to put it. The bad way to put it is that it retained an ugly 39% of the Idol demo (and just 35% of the 8:30 number). Comparing preliminary numbers, it was Truly down by 17%.

• The crumbling of ABC continues, as Winter Wipeout continues a long tradition of fellow unscripted shows being most affected by the Death Star. The Shonda Rhimes dramas Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice were then each down nearly 10% more.

• Aside from a post-premiere drop from 30 Rock, NBC was mostly unaffected, though The Firm (0.9) did officially tie Prime Suspect's series low in the timeslot (and said series low came with a sub-1.0 lead-in...).

• CDub's dramas The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle both hit outright lows.

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
Winter Wipeout	5.85	1.8	39%	-18%	n/a	-21%	4/4	+11%	n/a	1.90
Grey's Anatomy	9.42	3.5	48%	-8%	-18%	-8%	10/11	+1%	+94%	3.13
Private Practice	6.00	2.1	45%	-9%	-8%	-16%	10/11	-21%	-40%	1.63
The Big Bang Theory	15.83	5.3	43%	+0%	n/a	+7%	2/13	+7%	n/a	6.41
Rob	11.41	3.5	39%	-15%	+0%	-15%	2/2	+2%	-34%	3.21
Person of Interest	14.40	3.2	28%	+0%	-15%	+15%	1/12	+15%	-9%	2.55
The Mentalist	14.22	3.0	27%	+11%	+0%	+13%	1/12	+14%	-6%	2.58
30 Rock	4.05	1.6	51%	-11%	n/a	-11%	2/2	+0%	n/a	1.68
Parks and Recreation	4.25	1.9	57%	+0%	-11%	-3%	7/12	-1%	+19%	2.01
The Office	6.02	3.0	64%	+3%	-0%	-5%	6/12	-5%	+58%	2.62
Up All Night	3.98	1.9	61%	-5%	+3%	-11%	8/13	-13%	-37%	1.44
The Firm	3.42	0.9	34%	-10%	-5%	-29%	3/3	-30%	-53%	0.64
American Idol Thu	18.02	5.7	40%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	+72%	n/a	6.67
The Finder	6.58	2.2	43%	+29%	+138%	+29%	1/2	-34%	-61%	1.17
The Vampire Diaries	2.71	1.1	52%	-8%	n/a	-20%	12/12	-20%	n/a	1.23
The Secret Circle	1.63	0.7	55%	-13%	-8%	-22%	12/12	-21%	-36%	0.50

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.
Lead - A18-49 percent difference from lead-in program.
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 original entertainment average this season.
TRUE - True Strength, a metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in. (Note: these are PRELIMINARY TRUE calculations. Finals come next week.)

(R) - Repeat.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.