Spotted Ratings, Friday 9/14/12: Shark Tankin' It

WHAT MATTERS:

• If I'd done a formal The Question post on Shark Tank, I'd have said my pick came down to a struggle between two things: 1) the show was way up year-to-year last spring despite a brutal situation: super-low post-DST HUT levels and facing other legit unscripted shows; and 2) the early start means nobody is really seeing any ads on summer-plagued ABC, plus I haven't really seen any ads on the ESPN family of networks. (Now that I've typed all of that, guess I should've just done a formal post!) Looks like my instincts were pretty good, as Shark Tank upticked in finals to finish just above the year-ago premiere. The rest of ABC's unscripted lineup also did pretty great work, with Primetime: What Would You Do? and 20/20 also up year-to-year (especially the latter).

• America's Next Top Model dropped in finals but still managed to hold onto the bounce it got from facing "Stand Up to Cancer" last week. By the super-low standards this show has set for itself, not bad.

• Meanwhile, Fox threw away a leftover season one episode of Touch, which finished well below all the others. I've said I don't see the show working well on Friday, but I wouldn't read a ton into this one-off result, as it likely got virtually zero promotion since the show's not airing again for six weeks.

FULL TABLE:

Info			Show				Timeslot		True2
	Viewers	A18-49	Last	LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
Shark Tank	6.40	1.8	n/a	n/a	1/1	+6%	+200%	+71%	2.24
Primetime: What Would You Do?	5.31	1.7	n/a	n/a	1/1	+6%	+36%	+113%	1.89
20/20	6.13	1.8	n/a	n/a	1/1	+50%	+44%	+89%	2.02
Undercover Boss (SR)	4.18	0.7					+40%	-18%	1.10
CSI: NY (SR)	4.84	0.7					+17%	-7%	0.93
Blue Bloods (SR)	4.92	0.6					+9%	-20%	0.82
Guys with Kids (R)	2.99	1.0					+67%	+43%	1.49
Go On (R)	2.81	0.9					+50%	+29%	1.22
Grimm (R)	2.09	0.6					+50%	-61%	0.79
Dateline Fri	3.85	0.9	n/a	n/a	1/1	-55%	+0%	-57%	1.18
Touch	3.07	0.7	-46%	n/a	13/13	n/a	+75%	-18%	1.10
Bones (SR)	3.01	0.6					+20%	+0%	0.82
America's Next Top Model	1.41	0.6	+0%	n/a	1/4	n/a	-8%	+71%	0.82
Nikita (SR)	0.61	0.2					+0%	-33%	0.20

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.
Last - A18-49 percent difference from previous episode.
LeLa - A18-49 percent difference between the show's lead-in and its lead-in for the previous episode.
Rank - The A18-49 rating's rank among the show's episodes that have aired so far this season.
y2y - The show's A18-49 rating compared to its rating a year ago.
TLa - The show's A18-49 rating compared to the network's rating in the timeslot one week ago.
Ty2y - The show's A18-49 rating compared to the network's rating in the timeslot one year ago.
True2 - The second edition of True Strength, a metric that adjusts the A18-49 rating for overall viewing levels, competition and lead-in. PRELIMINARY CALCULATION. For finals, see SpotVault.

(R) - Repeat.

Much more detail on these numbers at the New Daily Spotted Ratings page.

More Spotted Ratings in the Index.