Spotted Ratings, Thursday 3/29/12: Diplomatic Community

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Big Bang Theory was back (and down nearly 10% in its first post-DST airing), but Community was totally unfazed. The rest of the NBC evening continues to implode without The Office around, with Up All Night and Awake brutally dropping another couple tenths. The latter is surely done for. NBC will again go without an original The Office next week, saving most of the remaining ones to lead into Parks and Recreation's return on April 12.

• Week two of Touch dropped a typical 18%. The timeslot got a bit tougher with Person of Interest back in the mix, so this isn't necessarily that bad, but this is still not a terribly difficult timeslot with The Office and Grey's still out of the picture.

• Missing rose in finals and lost just a tick in its first airing against CBS comedy. Now, can it rally as it airs alongside other ABC originals next week?

• CBS' return of Rules of Engagement was really ugly as it dropped a season-high 43% of its Big Bang lead-in and, after finals, did no better than the last post-original episode of Rob (2.9 out of a 5.3). Technically, Rules was even with its last December original, but its lead-in was a repeat (and 1.8 points smaller) on that night.

• Today brought another new low for The Secret Circle (0.6).

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
Missing	7.87	1.5	24%	-6%	n/a	-19%	3/3	-9%	n/a	1.85
Grey's Anatomy (R)	4.13	1.2	37%	+0%	-6%	+14%	3/8	-65%	-20%	1.01
Private Practice (R)	2.68	0.8	38%	+0%	+0%	+0%	1/3	-68%	-33%	0.77
The Big Bang Theory	13.96	4.7	43%	-8%	n/a	-8%	16/20	-8%	n/a	6.84
Rules of Engagement	8.65	2.7	40%	+0%	+62%	-19%	7/8	-19%	-43%	2.64
Person of Interest	14.59	3.3	29%	-3%	-31%	+13%	2/18	+13%	+22%	3.08
The Mentalist	13.62	2.7	25%	+50%	+65%	+1%	7/19	-0%	-18%	2.72
Community	3.48	1.7	62%	+0%	n/a	+2%	3/13	+7%	n/a	2.24
30 Rock	3.14	1.5	61%	-6%	+13%	-6%	8/14	-18%	-12%	1.70
The Office (R)	2.59	1.2	59%	+71%	+88%	+29%	2/10	-57%	-20%	0.95
Up All Night	2.92	1.3	57%	-13%	-25%	-33%	22/22	-34%	+8%	1.30
Awake	3.18	1.0	40%	-17%	-13%	-38%	5/5	-22%	-23%	0.99
American Idol Thu	15.87	4.4	35%	+5%	n/a	-14%	10/11	+7%	n/a	6.02
Touch	8.92	2.7	39%	-18%	+5%	-25%	3/3	-16%	-39%	2.05
The Vampire Diaries	2.44	1.2	63%	-8%	n/a	-10%	12/18	-10%	n/a	1.61
The Secret Circle	1.33	0.6	58%	-14%	-8%	-28%	18/18	-27%	-50%	0.41

KEY (click to expand)

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.

Much more detail on these numbers at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.