Spotted Ratings, Thursday 3/21/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• CBS' #1 Thursday lineup took its first of two straight Thursdays off for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. As has been the case ever since the games were spread across four networks, the CBS ratings went well below the normal Thursday entertainment ratings. After finals, the lineup was basically even with the first Thursday of last season, with the first game up and the second game (an absolute massacre by VCU over Akron) down.

• The other networks' ability to capitalize on this was mixed. Namely, Fox and NBC didn't; American Idol took yet another brutal dip, while Community saw no bounce from the absence of competing comedy megahit The Big Bang Theory.

• But ABC and the CW, whose lineups probably have very little crossover with basketball, did benefit. ABC got a very respectable Thursday debut from Wife Swap, while Grey's Anatomy bounced nearly all the way back from its week-ago low point. And The Vampire Diaries and Beauty and the Beast both upticked on the CDub.

FULL TABLE:

Info			Show				Timeslot		True2
	Viewers	A18-49	Last	LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
Wife Swap	4.97	1.7	n/a	n/a	1/1	n/a	+31%	+6%	2.00
Grey's Anatomy	9.39	3.0	+15%	+31%	10/18	n/a	+15%	+150%	3.33
Scandal	8.51	2.7	+0%	-3%	3/16	n/a	+145%	+218%	2.90
NCAA Basketball	5.47	1.8	n/a	n/a	1/1	+20%	-51%	-10%	2.08
NCAA Basketball	3.32	1.2	-33%	n/a	2/2	-20%	-51%	-49%	1.48
Community	2.95	1.1	+0%	n/a	5/7	-35%	+0%	-35%	1.26
1600 Penn	2.49	0.9	-10%	-42%	8/10	n/a	-44%	-40%	1.24
The Office (R)	2.27	0.9					-53%	-44%	1.22
1600 Penn	2.32	0.9	+0%	-18%	8/11	n/a	-10%	-40%	1.24
Law and Order: SVU (R)	4.24	1.1					+29%	-12%	1.46
American Idol Thu	11.93	2.9	-6%	n/a	10/10	-31%	-6%	-31%	3.31
Glee	5.91	2.0	+0%	-6%	13/17	n/a	+3%	-38%	2.06
The Vampire Diaries	2.65	1.3	+18%	n/a	6/17	+0%	+13%	+0%	1.56
Beauty and the Beast	1.72	0.6	+20%	+18%	6/16	n/a	+20%	-14%	0.56

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.