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.

Rank	Name	TRUE	A18-49	ARank
1	American Idol Wed	5.71	5.0	1
2	American Idol Thu	5.29	4.3	2
3	Modern Family	4.67	4.2	3
4	The Voice Mon	4.44	4.0	4
5	How I Met Your Mother	4.38	3.5	6
6	NCIS	3.88	3.1	10
7	2 Broke Girls	3.69	3.5	6
8	The Big Bang Theory (R-8pm)	3.50	2.8	16
9	Glee	3.35	2.7	18
10	Two and a Half Men	3.34	3.6	5
11	The Voice Tue	3.28	3.5	6
12	Dancing with the Stars Mon	3.22	3.0	12
13	Survivor	3.17	2.7	18
14	Mike and Molly	3.15	3.2	9
15	The Big Bang Theory (R-9pm)	3.12	3.1	10
16	Grey's Anatomy	3.01	2.9	14
17	Criminal Minds	2.96	3.0	12
18	Rules of Engagement	2.88	2.7	18
19	The Middle	2.66	2.1	32
20	NASCAR	2.56	2.0	37
21	The Biggest Loser	2.52	2.1	32
22	Bones	2.51	2.2	28
23	Hawaii Five-0	2.46	2.6	21
24	New Girl	2.44	2.8	16
25	Apartment 23	2.39	2.9	14

Missing the True Top 25 but in the A18-49 list: The Amazing Race (t-#21 in A18-49, #27 in TRUE), The Simpsons (t-#25 in A18-49, #28 in TRUE), Dancing with the Stars Tue (t-#25 in A18-49, #29 in TRUE), CSI (t-#23 in A18-49, #33 in TRUE), NCIS: Los Angeles (t-#23 in A18-49, #38 in TRUE) and Touch (t-#25 in A18-49, #43 in TRUE).

For more on the True Top 25, click to expand.

I created the True Strength number last summer so I could have an objective way of comparing shows across vastly different situations. One of the most fun comparisons to be made is among the biggest shows on TV. What's really the strongest show in a vacuum? Hence my new weekly feature the True Top 25. This will compare shows while accounting for everything so we can see who Truly comes out on top. I include both the A18-49 and the weekly ranking in A18-49 so you can see the changes within the rankings that True Strength makes.

The A18-49 rankings aren't based on Nielsen's "official" broadcast top 25. They're derived from my own spreadsheet just using the big-five networks, so none of the big players on Univision are included. I've also weeded out some weird programming like NFL overruns and sports pre-game shows. Most of that stuff airs largely out of primetime or is strangely split apart, so I don't want to muddle the list with that.

As mentioned on the sports SpotVault pages, True Strengths for sporting events are based on the primetime portion only. Perhaps in future editions I'll try to get the primetime portion only A18-49 into the A18-49 rankings so it'll be a totally fair comparison. 

Here's last week's True Top 25!