Spotted Ratings, Thursday 5/17/12: Growth's Anatomy

WHAT MATTERS:

• In the last couple weeks of this year of the sitcom, the dramas have started fighting back. The remarkably strong second half of the Grey's Anatomy season came to an end with noticeable year-to-year growth for the second straight week.  ABC also had a very promising season one finale from Scandal, which easily exceeded its previous 1.9/2.0 level even after a finals drop. It would appear ABC made the right choice in the Scandal / GCB debate.

• CBS aired its final evening of series originals this season, with last-of-the-bubble-shows Rules of Engagement suffering by a larger-than-expected amount with no original The Big Bang Theory lead-in and Person of Interest and The Mentalist seeing no real finale bounce.

• NBC didn't do much at 9/8c with an extra hour of Community, but it was still clearly the right call to air that in sweeps rather than another hour of Awake. So Awake will wrap things up on what should be a wild first day of summer next Thursday.

FULL TABLE:

Info				Show				Timeslot		TRUE
	Viewers	A18-49	Skew	Last	LeLa	Avg	Rank	Tavg	Lead
Missing	6.53	1.3	25%	+18%	n/a	-11%	8/10	-17%	n/a	1.68
Grey's Anatomy	11.44	4.1	46%	+17%	+18%	+16%	2/23	+22%	+215%	4.79
Scandal	7.33	2.3	40%	+21%	+17%	+17%	1/7	-3%	-44%	2.18
The Big Bang Theory (R)	8.49	2.5	38%	+0%	n/a	-9%	12/16	-50%	n/a	3.66
Rules of Engagement	7.17	2.1	37%	-22%	-43%	-29%	15/15	-33%	-16%	2.55
Person of Interest	13.47	2.5	24%	-4%	-22%	-14%	21/23	-14%	+19%	2.65
The Mentalist	13.09	2.5	24%	+4%	-4%	-4%	15/24	-5%	+0%	2.72
Community	2.97	1.3	56%	-7%	n/a	-17%	18/20	-16%	n/a	1.73
30 Rock	2.84	1.4	63%	-7%	-7%	-9%	15/21	-20%	+8%	1.80
Community	2.61	1.3	64%	+0%	+8%	-17%	18/21	-52%	-7%	1.28
Community	2.48	1.3	67%	+0%	-7%	-16%	18/22	-30%	+0%	1.40
Awake	2.10	0.7	43%	-22%	-24%	-38%	11/12	-40%	-46%	0.65
American Idol Thu	16.40	4.4	34%	+10%	n/a	-7%	10/18	+7%	n/a	6.41
Touch	6.02	1.7	36%	-11%	+10%	-32%	10/10	-42%	-61%	1.14
Perez Hilton All Access	0.80	0.3	48%	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	-77%	n/a	0.35
The Vampire Diaries (R)	0.60	0.2	43%	-50%	-25%	-46%	12/12	-74%	-33%	0.18

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.