Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 9/26/12

WHAT MATTERS:

• ABC finally had some decent news to report this season as The Middle and Modern Family were both down 10% or less year-to-year. Modern Family launched much-reviled newbie The Neighbors at a respectable but uninspiring level. Considering how the other networks' comedies are doing and how far down the shows got late last season, this is something of a win. I expected this lineup to be about 0.2 lower, and I have not exactly been over-predicting shows this season. ABC rounded out the night with a Revenge recap special.

• NBC basically flopped with the premieres of Animal Practice and Guys with Kids. They did close to what I expected for the hour, but I figured the ratings would be reversed. (In other words, I thought Guys would drop at 8:30.) This kind of relationship perhaps opens the door to the Whitney / Guys with Kids pairing that some are yearning for, and these results certainly improve the odds that the Friday comedy block ain't happening. (Especially not as currently constructed.) Despite these results, NBC looks to finish as the only network on the year-to-year upside for the third straight day as the two-hour Law and Order: SVU premiere vastly outrated the Harry's Law/SVU two-hour average last year. (But a program ratings comparison sees SVU down 13% from last year's premiere.)

• For the second time in three days (and maybe the third time depending on your Vegas expectations), the most disappointing result of the night came from a CBS drama. Criminal Minds lost a full point from the year-ago premiere, and CSI was down just about as much percentage-wise. Survivor upticked in finals to end up down just a tenth from last week's premiere and from last year's second airing.

• On Fox, The X Factor lost about the same amount week-to-week as the primary night of The Voice against the return of full-fledged competition.

FULL TABLE:

Info			Show				Timeslot		True2
	Viewers	A18-49	Last	LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
The Middle	9.16	2.9	n/a	n/a	1/1	-6%	+176%	-6%	2.75
Modern Family	14.44	5.5	n/a	n/a	1/1	-10%	+244%	-8%	5.20
The Neighbors	9.22	3.2	n/a	n/a	1/1	n/a	+167%	-48%	2.55
Revenge (R)	5.20	1.5					+114%	-55%	1.21
Survivor	10.31	3.1	-3%	n/a	2/2	-3%	-2%	-2%	3.21
Criminal Minds	11.73	3.1	n/a	n/a	1/1	-24%	+3%	-23%	2.99
CSI	10.76	2.5	n/a	n/a	1/1	-22%	+2%	-22%	2.11
Animal Practice	5.19	1.4	n/a	n/a	1/1	n/a	-13%	-42%	1.63
Guys with Kids	4.84	1.6	-27%	-52%	2/2	n/a	-16%	+23%	1.74
Law and Order: SVU	7.19	2.1	n/a	n/a	1/1	-13%	+71%	+18%	2.11
The X Factor Wed	9.63	3.4	-6%	n/a	2/3	-23%	-5%	-22%	3.54
Oh Sit!	0.87	0.4	+0%	n/a	2/9	+0%	+0%	+0%	0.48
Supernatural (SR)	0.74	0.3					-14%	-60%	0.34

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.