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.

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
Missing	7.24	1.5	26%	+0%	n/a	-13%	3/4	-9%	n/a	1.99
Grey's Anatomy	8.19	2.8	44%	-7%	-29%	-23%	17/17	-19%	+87%	2.80
Scandal	7.33	2.0	35%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	-20%	-29%	2.21
The Big Bang Theory	13.29	4.4	42%	-6%	n/a	-13%	21/21	-13%	n/a	6.91
Rules of Engagement	8.58	2.7	40%	+0%	-6%	-17%	7/9	-18%	-39%	2.81
Person of Interest	13.69	3.0	28%	-9%	+0%	+2%	9/19	+2%	+11%	2.80
The Mentalist	12.59	2.4	24%	-11%	-9%	-10%	19/20	-11%	-20%	2.71
Community	3.00	1.3	55%	-24%	n/a	-22%	14/14	-18%	n/a	1.79
30 Rock	2.79	1.2	55%	-20%	-24%	-24%	15/15	-34%	-8%	1.43
The Office (R)	2.51	1.0	51%	-17%	-20%	+4%	5/11	-64%	-17%	0.85
Up All Night	2.58	1.2	59%	-8%	-17%	-37%	23/23	-38%	+20%	1.19
Awake	2.56	0.9	45%	-10%	-8%	-39%	6/6	-29%	-25%	1.00
American Idol Thu	14.34	3.9	35%	-11%	n/a	-23%	12/12	-6%	n/a	5.66
Touch	7.15	2.3	41%	-15%	-11%	-30%	4/4	-28%	-41%	1.72
The Vampire Diaries (R)	1.06	0.4	48%	+0%	n/a	+9%	2/10	-70%	n/a	0.50
The Secret Circle (R)	0.84	0.4	61%	+33%	+33%	+28%	2/16	-50%	+0%	0.36

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.