Schedule Five-Spot, WE 4/29/12 - CBS Summer, The Lying Game, Fringe, Happily Divorced, Community

Here's the Schedule Five-Spot for the week ending April 29, 2012:

CBS Summer - CBS revealed the deets on yet another relatively light summer of original programming. For the third straight summer, Big Brother will air on Wednesday/Thursday/Sunday, with the premiere coming on Thursday, July 12. Dating series 3 goes after the Sunday edition of Big Brother starting on July 22. Their other new summer series, reality program Dogs in the City, will start much earlier in the summer, airing Wednesdays at 8/7c starting May 30.

Demos Year-to-Year, Thursday 4/26/12

Demos Year-to-Year is back for its fourth May sweeps! As was true in February, expect Wednesday and Thursday to be in negative double digits all sweep long thanks to American Idol. The NBC Thursday numbers will usually be bad, but they're a bit exaggerated on this night since the year-ago evening was Steve Carell's Office finale.

CW True Power Rankings, April 2012

For the first time in seven weeks, it's the True Power Rankings! This is the most critical edition of all, because the networks have just about all the ratings info that they will take into final decision-making time. This should be fun, since lots of new shows have entered the mix since last we spoke. Let's go.

As last time, the numbers below take the ten most recent final TRUE scores (as of April 22), drop the highest and lowest result, and average whatever's left.

Previous CW Power Rankings: November | January | February

Other networks: ABC | CBS | NBC | Fox | The CW

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/26/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• May sweeps opened on a really sour note for CBS, as The Big Bang Theory was down several more ticks from what was already a season low three weeks ago, previously smokin' hot Person of Interest totally melted down and The Mentalist took a hit too. Usually CBS is pretty resilient to this sort of thing, but they had a really bad evening last year on NFL Draft night too.

• As for the draft, its combined rating on ESPN and the NFL Network was up over 20% from last year (3.3 -> 4.0). The NFL Net grabbed a greater share of that audience this year, as its demo nearly doubled from last year (0.4 -> 0.7).

• The troubles continue for Touch, fast plummeting out of "deserves renewal" territory. That's a low for itself but also below anything eventually Friday-exiled The Finder did after American Idol, though Idol is also weaker now than it was then.

• This may be the week that makes me a believer in Scandal, as it posted its fourth straight 2.0 against the draft and the return of The Mentalist.

• 30 Rock bumped up by just one tenth in its second live episode, a far cry from the massive bump (2.1 -> 3.1) it got the first time it tried this back in October 2010.

Fox True Power Rankings, April 2012

For the first time in seven weeks, it's the True Power Rankings! This is the most critical edition of all, because the networks have just about all the ratings info that they will take into final decision-making time. This should be fun, since lots of new shows have entered the mix since last we spoke. Let's go.

As last time, the numbers below take the ten most recent final TRUE scores (as of April 22), drop the highest and lowest result, and average whatever's left.

Previous Fox Power Rankings: November | January | February

Other networks: ABC | CBS | NBC | Fox | The CW

NBC True Power Rankings, April 2012

For the first time in seven weeks, it's the True Power Rankings! This is the most critical edition of all, because the networks have just about all the ratings info that they will take into final decision-making time. This should be fun, since lots of new shows have entered the mix since last we spoke. Let's go.

As last time, the numbers below take the ten most recent final TRUE scores (as of April 22), drop the highest and lowest result, and average whatever's left.

Previous NBC Power Rankings: November | January | February

Other networks: ABC | CBS | NBC | Fox | The CW

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/25/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• The dull last day before May sweeps saw ABC's Apartment 23 drop more than a half point following a repeat of Modern Family in just its third episode on the air. I expected a 2.1 or 2.2, so this is a bit of a disappointment. But since it's still so early, I don't think it's something the show can't come back from. It looks basically equivalent to what Happy Endings did after repeats, maybe a tiny tad better. Revenge also took a noticeable dip, but again, I'll reserve any kind of larger judgment till after the whole lineup is back. I don't think either of these results are anything to crow about, but here's another take.

• I guess I should mention that Rock Center was up 50%? No? Bueller?

• The LA Complex did about the same (a little better in viewers) compared to the previous evening's premiere, which would suggest (along with the show's huge 8:30 drop) that the CW's local programming at 7:30 is doing much better. Remodeled did something similar in a Friday 8/7c test.

CBS True Power Rankings, April 2012

For the first time in seven weeks, it's the True Power Rankings! This is the most critical edition of all, because the networks have just about all the ratings info that they will take into final decision-making time. This should be fun, since lots of new shows have entered the mix since last we spoke. Let's go.

As last time, the numbers below take the ten most recent final TRUE scores (as of April 22), drop the highest and lowest result, and average whatever's left.

Previous CBS Power Rankings: November | January | February

Other networks: ABC | CBS | NBC | Fox | The CW

ABC True Power Rankings, April 2012

For the first time in seven weeks, it's the True Power Rankings! This is the most critical edition of all, because the networks have just about all the ratings info that they will take into final decision-making time. This should be fun, since lots of new shows have entered the mix since last we spoke. Let's go.

As last time, the numbers below take the ten most recent final TRUE scores (as of April 22), drop the highest and lowest result, and average whatever's left.

Previous ABC Power Rankings: November | January | February

Other networks: ABC | CBS | NBC | Fox | The CW

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/24/12: Far From Complex

WHAT MATTERS:

• The last broadcast premiere of the season was also the lowest-rated, as the CW's The LA Complex hit unbelievably low levels, barely half the Ringer average in the hour. It preliminarily even had slightly fewer viewers (under 650,000) than Remodeled (which premiered at about 670,000)! They got it on the cheap from Canada, so that might keep it around temporarily, but that'd obviously be the only reason.

• Most original shows were down about a tick despite a full night of CBS repeats, but there were two notable exceptions: Glee, bouncing back in its Whitney Houston episode, and Private Practice, which totally flipped the script and picked up a whooping half point after its disastrous start on the evening last week.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/23/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• CBS was in repeats on the final pre-sweeps Monday, and a couple shows were able to benefit. House got the biggest boost, with double-digit growth as it approaches the series finale. It outrated Bonesfor the first time since the two were paired. Smash faced no original scripted competition for the first time since March 5 and, for the first time since that evening, was slightly on the upside. (EDIT: Also faced no original scripted on March 12, but it did go against the much bigger Bachelor finale then.)

• ABC went with a 20/20 special on Dancing with the Stars at 10/9c and did Castle-esque numbers.

The True Top 25, Week Ending 4/22/12 (2011-12 Week 31)

This was the last fully non-sweeps week of the season, but a decent number of the heavy hitters participated. Lots of familiar stuff: American Idol won pretty handily. Modern Family was the top scripted program pretty handily since The Big Bang Theory was in repeats. The Voice kept fading. Thanks to a Friday that saw all the heavy hitters sit out, nobody on that evening made the list. That's all I got. Bring on sweeps.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/22/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• A couple networks went with special programming as ABC had their third Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, Firelight, which pulled ABC's best-yet Hallmark ratings. Fox went with the pilots of Married... with Children and The Simpsons into their 25th Anniversary Special. Both nets did worse than original entertainment stuff would have, but they were OK options for the last pre-sweeps Sunday.

• The leftover entertainment options were mostly unscathed, relatively speaking. Nobody had a big spike against all the special programming either, but Once Upon a Time was back up to the 3.0 threshold. NYC 22 dropped just a tick in week two, but it needed something far better given last week's start.

Spotted Ratings, Saturday 4/21/12 (FINALS)

WHAT MATTERS:

• The last of the four so-called "quarterly specials" of America's Most Wanted (all of which aired within six months) helped Fox tie for a nightly win but did much worse than the previous three. The specials' trajectory was 1.5 -> 1.1 -> 1.0 -> 0.8. Looks like they were right to let the franchise go.

First Two Weeks, NYC 22

NYC 22 (CBS)

All About New Shows from 2006-2012

If you've read my First Two Weeks posts, you know that I take a special interest in the very early stages of a show's lifespan. They're interesting because 1) they're unpredictable and 2) new blood is so important to sustaining primetime TV as we know it for as long as possible. It undeniably takes the least work to talk about how veterans are doing, because you can lean on year-to-year comparisons. But for me, a very important part (maybe even the most important part) of each TV season is how the new shows did.

I sorta go into the "how good was this season?" questions at the end of each year of First Two Weeks posts, but right here I'm going to put it all in one place and also attach some of my recently developed "hit/flop" labels. How has each freshman class of the last six years helped shape the primetime we know today?

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 4/22/12 - Eureka, Private Practice, Revenge, Parks and Rec, Veep

This week's Ratings Five-Spot at SpoilerTV examines the final season premiere of Eureka on Syfy, a new timeslot for Private Practice, the post-hiatus returns of Revenge and Parks and Recreation, and HBO's second Sunday comedy premiere in as many weeks with Veep. Check it out!

The Five-Spots are my recaps of what aired, what got renewed/cancelled and what rated well or poorly last week in TV. For more Five-Spots, see the Index.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/20/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• The one thing you can say about The Finder is that it is certainly able to take advantage when it has just about zero competition. Its third episode on Thursday faced nothing and had a huge uptick, and this week's third Friday episode followed suit with all three competing reality franchises sitting out the evening. It's certainly better than not spiking, but I feel it has to sustain at least this level under tougher circumstances to get back into the conversation.

• At 9/8c, Grimm seemingly proved last week's 1.6 a bit of a fluke and dropped a couple ticks, but it was still ahead of the previous couple episodes.

• Dateline pulled ahead of 20/20 in the 10/9c newsmagazine war for the first time since February.

• After finals, worth noting that a special Friday Mike and Molly encore was adjusted up to a 1.0 and thus handily beat the other CBS repeats. I think Mike and Molly is an interesting dark horse candidate to move to Thursday.

The Talent Tumble and Other Unscripted Trends

Three weeks ago, I introduced the A18-49+, a number that helps us put previous seasons of TV ratings on a level playing field with those of today. Two weeks ago, I attached numbers to common labels like "hit" and "flop." And last week, I dove into the larger trends within the realm of broadcast primetime scripted TV. In four words: sitcoms up, dramas down. (Next week, maybe I create an index page so I won't have to recap all these posts every week!)

As for this week, it's the sequel to last week's post, as I tackle unscripted shows. There is not the crystal-clear trajectory here that we had with the dramas and sitcoms. The message will not be quite as unified. But I still have a few kinda interesting points that I left out of last week's post for length/sanity reasons.

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/19/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC brought back Parks and Recreation down a tick from its last rating in early March. It did better than the last few Up All Night episodes, but it still looks like a relatively disappointing outing compared to its 8:30 results against Idol and with much smaller lead-ins.

• Finals changed the ABC picture. Grey's Anatomy had a great evening, up double digits, but the two newbies were unchanged. Scandal posted its third straight 2.0, but each one is Truly worse than the last (this time because of the Grey's jump).

• Several marginal shows had pretty bad evenings, including Rules of Engagement, Touch and The Secret Circle (which also suffered from a tanking The Vampire Diaries lead-in). We may look back on this final pre-sweeps Thursday as an evening that sealed several fates.

First Two Weeks, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

APARTMENT 23 (ABC)

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/18/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC had a down evening across the board, but there was nothing too alarming since they started the evening with a repeat The Middle. Suburgatory lost just one tenth in its first airing in such a situation, which seems pretty good. Apartment 23 lost a reasonable 10% in week two. Revenge returned from its long hiatus down a tick from its last airing on February 29. Next week should be interesting as Apartment 23 and Revenge follow 90 minutes of repeats.

• With CBS in repeats from 9-11, nothing much happened elsewhere. After finals, Law and Order: SVU got adjusted up and was able to hold off the repeat of CSI.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/17/12: Dubious Practices

WHAT MATTERS:

• In its first airing away from Thursday since 2008, Private Practice looked quite weak, coming in more than two tenths behind the post-DWTS average for Body of Proof over the previous three weeks (and 10% behind the full timeslot average). My thought was Body of Proof probably needed almost all the other marginal ABC dramas to collapse to have a shot at coming back, but these days that seems to be a pretty good bet.

• I thought Glee did pretty decently in its return from hiatus last week, but that may have been a one-time thing, as this week's episode took a multiple-tick dip. Most other 8/7c players were also down as Last Man Standing continues to look worse by the week. I still think it's getting renewed, but it's not doing itself any favors.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/16/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was a pretty bad evening on broadcast as The Voice dropped for the sixth consecutive week. The show has now lost over 40% of its demo audience across that seven week period.

• The other really noticeable struggler was CBS anchor How I Met Your Mother, which at least preliminarily is nearly a half point behind any previous result this season. After finishing just a tick behind Two and a Half Men for the Monday comedy lead last week, it'll be more than a half point shy of Men this week. This was the first time since early January that a Men original was the outright top program of Monday night. Time to re-up, Ashton.

The True Top 25, Week Ending 4/15/12 (2011-12 Week 30)

This is the closest we've had to a "full strength" week on broadcast probably since February sweeps, so the numbers on the True Top 25 as a whole were stronger than usual of late. The only lineup in repeats that's a significant player on this list was CBS Thursday, and they still got three shows on the list as The Big Bang Theory continues to prove even its repeats are practically an elite comedy.

American Idol emerged as the clear chart-topper with Big Bang out of the mix. Modern Family was the top scripted show, but it and the other ABC Wednesday sitcoms underwhelmed in their return from a fairly long hiatus.

With so many shows original, the Friday/Saturday Watch didn't produce any top 25ers except for the NASCAR race on Saturday.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/15/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• Hey, I guess the CBS viewers won't tune in for everything procedural! CBS totally bombed with the series premiere of NYC 22, which finished more than 30% behind the mostly CSI: Miami timeslot average. You know it's a bad premiere night when you can't even hold all of your The Good Wife lead-in. Looks like this won't be complicating the CBS bubble situation.

• The finale of ABC's low-rated Titanic miniseries proved a pretty dreadful lead-in for GCB. If it can perk back up to the very upper 1's in two weeks when it gets the Desperate Housewives lead-in back, ABC will probably forget about this result. For now, it certainly can't be considered a good sign.

Spotted Ratings, Saturday 4/14/12 (FINALS)

WHAT MATTERS: 

• We knew not to expect much when ABC scheduled the first three hours of its Titanic miniseries on Saturday night, and the show met those non-expectations. It hit a 0.8 demo in five of the six half-hours (and a 0.7 at 8:30).

• For the trivia buffs, Escape Routes dropped back to lowest-big-four-demo-ever territory, joining its debut from two weeks earlier (plus a July 4, 2009 episode of Kings) at the 0.2 level.

• Fox had a significantly above-average NASCAR race and outrated the combined competition in each of the first three half-hours. On NASCAR evenings, Fox looks like a genius for scaling back Cops and going sports on Saturday. We'll see if that remains the case when baseball becomes the usual option.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/13/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• With the return of Shark Tank in originals, a solid ABC tied CBS atop Friday. Tank nearly won at 8/7c against a new low from Undercover Boss. CBS was then below average from 9-11 with a Lionel Richie special, but it still did better than repeats would have.

• Fox had a really unlucky Friday the 13th as The Finder and Fringe both came down double digits from the pairing's already soft debut last week. That left a great result from Grimm on NBC as easily the evening's top scripted program.

SpotVault - NYC 22 (CBS) - 2011-12

NYC 22

Sundays, 10/9c, CBS

SpotVault - Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (ABC) - 2011-12

Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

Wednesdays, 9:30/8:30c, ABC

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 4/15/12 - Glee, Apartment 23, The Big Bang Theory, NYC 22, Girls

This week's Ratings Five-Spot over at SpoilerTV looks at the return of Glee, the opening of Apartment 23, the 9:00 tryout of The Big Bang Theory, the dead arrival of NYC 22 and the premiere of Girls. Check it out!

The Five-Spots are my recaps of what aired, what got renewed/cancelled and what rated well or poorly last week in TV. For more Five-Spots, see the Index.

Schedule Five-Spot, WE 4/15/12 - New Girl, Game of Thrones, Breaking In, Hell's Kitchen, The Game

Another edition covering two weeks! Technically speaking, here's the Schedule Five-Spot for the week ending April 15, 2012:

New Girl - Fox handed out renewals to their Tuesday lineup of Glee, New Girl and Raising Hope. New Girl has dropped a ton from its early fall numbers but is still easily Fox's biggest success in the live action half-hour arena in quite some time. Critically beloved Raising Hope probably made its case when it held up pretty well in its tryout at 8/7c this spring. Glee remains way down year-to-year but certainly deserves a season four, even if it'll likely keep bleeding.

First Two Weeks, Scandal

SCANDAL (ABC)

Quantifying the Return of the Sitcom

I've gone on record quite a bit over the last seven months or so that this is the "year of the sitcom" and that it's pretty much a no-brainer for every network to increase their comedy presence. It's easy to come up with arguments against (or at least complicating) such expansions on a micro basis. Is a two-hour CBS block on Thursday risking Person of Interest's growth? Does ABC have enough anchor-worthy shows to expand? Can Fox expand with just one strong comedy?

Those are questions that will certainly be considered, but I think ultimately the macro is gonna trump the micro. Or, at least, it should. This post will use my recently introduced A18-49+ number to chronicle the sitcom upswell of the last few years and, I hope, make the case why everyone should be scheduling accordingly. If you follow the industry, I don't think any of the larger ideas will be incredibly new, but hopefully the numbers will be neat!

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/12/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• CBS' first test of a two-hour Thursday comedy block was passed with relatively flying colors, as The Big Bang Theory did a bit better than Person of Interest's original timeslot average and won the 9:00 half-hour in repeats. Also importantly, Person of Interest was even with its last 9:00 rerun in its first 10:00 test. Also, an original Rules of Engagement looked pretty good sandwiched between a couple Big Bang reruns. Should CBS expand? I've said yes all along, and I see no reason to change my mind now. MUCH more on this topic coming in today's A18-49+ post at 2 ET is now live!

• On ABC, Scandal dropped after finals but still encouragingly finished even with its premiere number. Gotta say I'm really enjoying how the ABC drama situation is basically playing out in the most interesting possible way.

• NBC's The Office dealt a blow to the recently floated idea of a complete revamp, coming back down a couple ticks from pre-hiatus. It at least helped Up All Night go out on a relatively up note, but I'd personally still put it behind NBC's other marginal comedies.

First Two Weeks, Best Friends Forever

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (NBC)

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/11/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 had a pretty similar premiere to that of Happy Endings in the same situation a year ago. The 69% premiere night retention is a little behind that of cancelled Mr. Sunshine (Yay.) (3.7 out of a 5.1, 73%) and eventually renewed Endings (2.8 out of a 3.9, 72%). One positive in this comparison is this show had to face Idol on night one, where Endings faced Breaking In last year. So... too early to tell!

• Week two of Off Their Rockers on NBC dropped to about Whitney levels in the demo. Could be worse, for sure. Best Friends Forever dropped to Bent levels. Yeesh. The return of Law and Order: SVU picked up a tick and more than tripled its egregious Rock Center lead-in but just barely beat a Revenge recap.

• CBS had its second straight fairly soft evening as Survivor continues to dip and CSI, which has jumped all over the place this winter/spring, had a big downward jump this week with SVU back.

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/10/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• Fox got back into Tuesday's competitive mix with the return of Glee, which also boosted New Girl back up by over 20%; but that show still looks Truly a lot weaker than it did back when Glee left the airwaves. Considering it's Glee's first post-DST airing, not half bad for that show.

• Something you don't hear every (or any) day: CBS had a horrible night, and NBC had a great night. All three CBS dramas crashed by double digits, making for the lowest NCIS numbers since Idol was still on Tuesday and all-time lows for NCIS: Los Angeles and Unforgettable. Meanwhile, NBC's The Biggest Loser/The Voice/Fashion Star trio was up across the board, with The Voice now comfortably topping the night.

• ABC had a pretty rough outing as well with Last Man Standing and the Dancing with the Stars results both struggling against full competition. But Body of Proof put together a third straight fairly interesting result, now beating Unforgettable and retaining over 80% of the DWTS lead-in. It's posted a surprisingly decent final three ratings as it now sits in the clubhouse and awaits (among other things) the Private Practice results in the timeslot starting next week.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/9/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• The full CBS competition was back in place, meaning everyone on Monday was at full strength for once. The only network to really take a hit was Fox, where Bones and House were both down double-digits from the premiere of the pairing last week. The surprising dynamic between the two remains about the same, with House now dropping even more.

• Everybody else was fairly steady, but one interesting development was the best-yet retention for Mike and Molly after another stinker performance from Two and a Half Men. The four CBS sitcoms were amazingly almost identically-rated from wire to wire.

• Another ABC drama, another 1.3 pilot encore, this time for Scandal airing after Dancing with the Stars.

The True Top 25, Week Ending 4/8/12 (2011-12 Week 29)

The NCAA basketball championship on CBS topped this week's True Top 25 and was up year-to-year. The Big Bang Theory widened its lead over all the other entertainment options and more than doubled the next-strongest scripted show (fellow CBS Thursday option Person of Interest). Lots of the big shows were out of the mix yet again this week, but ABC Wednesday returns for the rest of the season starting in next week's edition!

This week, four Friday/Saturday shows hit the list, including the entire CBS Friday lineup. ABC's The Ten Commandments was the first movie to make it onto this list since It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve.

SpotVault - Scandal (ABC) - 2011-12

Scandal

Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC

SpotVault - Best Friends Forever (NBC) - 2011-12

Best Friends Forever

Wednesdays, 8:30/7:30c, NBC

SpotVault - Betty White's Off Their Rockers (NBC) - 2011-12

Betty White's Off Their Rockers

Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/8/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• CBS had a 51-minute overrun from the Masters, which was significantly down year-to-year despite the playoff. The final round as a whole averaged the 3.3 demo listed below, but that was much higher in the 7:00 hour (a 4.4 at 7:00 and a 4.1 at 7:30). That meant that the potential series finale of CSI: Miami started at 10:51 ET and scored a series low. I'm not a viewer, but it'd be kinda sad to see it go out like that.

• GCB held up all right in its first "on its own" airing, averaging a 1.7 at 9:00 and an even with last week 1.9 at 10:00. Still not sure what to make of this one right now. It airs after the end of ABC's Titanic miniseries next week.

• NBC's soft Harry's Law / Celebrity Apprentice duo got a little stronger on an evening of fairly light competition.

Spotted Ratings, Saturday 4/7/12 (FINALS)

WHAT MATTERS:

• The Ten Commandments tied Christmas Eve's It's a Wonderful Life as the biggest movie encore of the 2011-12 season to date and helped ABC dominate.

• When ratings are this low, rounding and the margin of error are everything. But hey, Escape Routes was up 50% in week two!!! Seriously, though, Off Their Rockers then built by triple digits and scored another decent bit of sampling.

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 4/8/12 - One Tree Hill, BFFs, Scandal, The Finder, The Client List

This week's Ratings Five-Spot over at SpoilerTV bids adieu to One Tree Hill (plus likely The Finder based on its Friday start) and says hello to NBC sitcom Best Friends Forever, ABC drama Scandal and Lifetime newbie The Client List. Check it out!

The Five-Spots are my recaps of what aired, what got renewed/cancelled and what rated well or poorly last week in TV. For more Five-Spots, see the Index.

Spotted Ratings, Friday 4/6/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was a relatively good Good Friday on network TV, with no discernible hit to overall viewing or to most of the individual shows. Only Fringe and the newsmagazines (with 20/20 still above average but down big from last week's Mega Millions-boosted ep) moved by any significant amount.

• The Finder began its Friday run at less than half of its Thursday post-Idol average but appears Truly about in line with those episodes. This is what happens when you move from one of the easiest timeslots on TV to one of the toughest!

Spotted Ratings, Thursday 4/5/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• This evening began what is typically a viewing-depressed four-day Easter weekend, and the median week-to-week drop among originals was 10%. It doesn't look like the drop in overall viewing was that high (EDIT: a network press release says -5%), but it still explains at least part of the soft evening. On the high end of the droppers were NBC's Community and 30 Rock, both crashing by 20%+. In addition to the viewing hit, they probably also came back to reality after their miraculous holds last week against the return of The Big Bang Theory.

• The "best" night week-to-week was probably had by ABC, where Missing was even and Grey's Anatomy was among the few shows down single-digits. But most important for them was the series premiere of Scandal, which dropped in finals to just 71% retention and 20% behind the mostly-Private Practice timeslot original average. That might be a touch better than Private Practice would've done on this night (because of the viewing depression), but still pretty underwhelming for a series premiere night.

A18-49+: Why We Gotta Put a Label On It?

In last week's intro to the A18-49+, my stab at a reasonably fair historical ratings measure, I promised I would illuminate lots of cool stuff about the TV industry. Sadly, that all starts next week, because we have to do a little more housekeeping before we can really get going. In this post, I'm going to try to create a frame of reference that we can use going forward to get some kind of grip on what exactly these numbers mean. Since these numbers are "fair" across a span of many years, that means the standards for commonly-used labels like "hit" and "flop" (things constantly in flux over the years using raw numbers) should remain about the same. A lot of this stuff is super subjective, but hopefully some of it will be a little interesting!

Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/4/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• NBC got an OK start out of Betty White's Off Their Rockers, which at least on premiere night improved the timeslot a bit over what Whitney's been doing. But the series premiere of Best Friends Forever joined the DOA pile and dropped big at 8:30.

• Happy Endings finished off its season on a particularly ugly note, down two tenths to a new low, while One Tree Hill saw only a minor bounce (probably less than the 14% below, as the preliminary half-hours were 0.7/0.7/0.8/0.8) in its series finale.

SpotVault - Escape Routes (NBC) - 2011-12

Escape Routes

Saturdays, 8/7c, NBC

Spotted Ratings, Tuesday 4/3/12: Weak Results

WHAT MATTERS:

• Just like in season one, the results shows for The Voice look a lot weaker compared with the main night (especially if last night's 4.1 was deflated by the NCAA bball competition). The show still improved the timeslot big-time, but it provided zero boost to reality program Fashion Star, which figures to post its Truly weakest result yet.

• The struggles just keep coming for New Girl, down double digits against The Voice in its final airing before Glee returns. This will mark the show's fourth straight decline in its five without-Glee eps.

• On ABC, despite Dancing with the Stars taking a week-to-week hit (again, thanks The Voice), Body of Proof maintained last week's surprising rating and rose about a million viewers with CBS sitting out the evening. The finale is next week, and it looks like this show will be leaving ABC decision-makers with a little something to think about.

Ratings Five-Spot, WE 4/1/12 - Body of Proof, CSI: NY, Game of Thrones, The Killing, Bones

This week's Ratings Five-Spot at SpoilerTV examines three pairs of shows headed in different directions. We start with the bubble dramas Body of Proof and CSI: NY, which responded quite differently to increased lead-ins. Then we look at cable dramas Game of Thrones and The Killing, two shows on starkly different trajectories in their sophomore seasons. And finally, we examine the vastly changed relationship between Fox dramas Bones and House. Check it out!

The Five-Spots are my recaps of what aired, what got renewed/cancelled and what rated well or poorly last week in TV. For more Five-Spots, see the Index.

The True Top 25, Week Ending 4/1/12 (2011-12 Week 28)

CBS finally got its hot Thursday lineup back on the air after a two-week basketball hiatus, and The Big Bang Theory reclaimed its throne atop the True Top 25 despite a raw numbers dip due to Daylight Saving Time. It's not often you'll see a Saturday show win the week in raw numbers but not Truly win the week, but it happened this time because Ohio State/Kansas had such a big lead-in from the first game of CBS' Final Four doubleheader.

In what was far from a full-strength broadcast week, two Friday shows easily made it onto this list, including 20/20's highest-in-two-years telecast on the Mega Millions lotto and another episode of Undercover Boss. Blue Bloods (2.05) was a close 26th.

Spotted Ratings, Sunday 4/1/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• The real intrigue on the evening came on cable with The Killing (0.5) and Game of Thrones (2.0) both kicking off their second seasons, but CBS dominated the broadcast night and did better than usual with the Academy of Country Music Awards. It was down a couple ticks from last year.

• ABC and Fox had a tough time against an above-average CBS and all the cable goings-on, with GCB down a couple ticks and animated comedies Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and The Cleveland Show taking even bigger week-to-week hits. The Simpsons remained in repeats but it too was a lot weaker than last week's repeat.

Spotted Ratings, Saturday 3/31/12 (FINALS)

WHAT MATTERS:

• CBS had a nice Final Four night as the Ohio State/Kansas nightcap was up a tick from last year's UConn/Kentucky game in the same timeslot. The overrun number below is only for the last half hour of Kentucky/Louisville (don't know the whole game number), but it's up about 10% from the last half hour of the year-ago Butler/VCU.

• NBC premiered Ford-subsidized reality show Escape Routes at the lowest 18-49 levels in the history of the big four networks, tying with NBC's Kings on 7/4/09. Yeesh.

• Cops came back for Fox, and while the 8/7c original tied a season low, it was Truly about average (as this was its first airing post-DST). Combined with a Bones repeat, the night about doubled the week-ago Q'Viva! The Chosen numbers.

Spotted Ratings, Monday 4/2/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• With CBS' Kansas/Kentucky NCAA basketball title game dominating the evening (and up by a half point from last year's UConn/Butler stinker), most of the other entertainment options suffered, with The Voice and Dancing with the Stars both down multiple ticks again.

• Fox got a solid return from Bones at 8/7c, and House rose in finals to get an OK benefit in its return to 9/8c. How times have changed; the last time these two shows aired together on a Monday (5/19/08) Bones got a 3.4 and House a whooping 5.8. Now, the dynamic between the two is completely different.

Schedule Five-Spot, WE 4/1/12 - The Big Bang Theory, Teenage Daughter, Smash, Hell's Kitchen, Bones

Here's the Schedule Five-Spot for the week ending April 1, 2012 (and also the previous week):

CBS Season Finale Dates - The CBS finale dates revealed that the net is basically sitting out nearly the entire final week of May sweeps. Its last finales come on May 17, the first day of the final week of the season, and Thursday tentpole The Big Bang Theory is ending a week earlier. Several shows (2 Broke Girls, Unforgettable, CSI) are ending even earlier to make way for double-sized finales for How I Met Your Mother, NCIS: Los Angeles and Criminal Minds.