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.

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
Missing	6.98	1.4	26%	+0%	n/a	-12%	5/7	-13%	n/a	1.65
Grey's Anatomy	9.45	3.3	45%	+0%	+0%	-7%	13/20	-2%	+136%	3.50
Scandal	6.86	2.0	37%	+0%	+0%	+0%	1/4	-18%	-39%	1.97
The Big Bang Theory	12.65	4.1	41%	-7%	n/a	-19%	22/22	-19%	n/a	5.62
Rules of Engagement	8.17	2.5	39%	+14%	+64%	-18%	11/12	-22%	-39%	2.54
Person of Interest	12.73	2.4	24%	-20%	-7%	-19%	20/20	-19%	-4%	2.26
The Mentalist	12.03	2.2	23%	-8%	-20%	-17%	20/21	-18%	-8%	2.37
Community	3.21	1.4	56%	+8%	n/a	-13%	13/17	-10%	n/a	1.68
30 Rock	3.47	1.6	59%	+7%	+8%	+3%	4/18	-10%	+14%	1.92
The Office	4.17	2.1	64%	-5%	+7%	-26%	22/22	-24%	+31%	2.14
Parks and Recreation	3.17	1.6	65%	-6%	-5%	-14%	20/20	-14%	-24%	1.43
Awake	2.21	0.8	46%	-11%	-6%	-37%	9/9	-35%	-50%	0.75
American Idol Thu	14.87	4.0	34%	+0%	n/a	-18%	13/15	-3%	n/a	5.28
Touch	6.43	1.9	38%	-10%	+0%	-31%	7/7	-38%	-53%	1.38
The Vampire Diaries	2.22	1.1	63%	+10%	n/a	-16%	18/20	-16%	n/a	1.42
The Secret Circle	1.15	0.5	56%	+0%	+10%	-38%	19/20	-37%	-55%	0.35

NOTE: I applied the NFL Draft number as competition for the whole evening, but my understanding is the draft rating and viewing inflation are more skewed toward the early picks. Since I don't have the actual breakdown, I can't account for this, so I would take the TRUE scores on this evening with something of a grain of salt.

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.