Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 4/3/13

WHAT MATTERS:

• It was a strong ABC comedy Wednesday across the board, but the biggest positive was the premiere of new sitcom How to Live 9:30, which managed to tie last year's Apartment 23 April premiere and vastly exceeded the recent Suburgatory level in the slot. After finals, Modern Family was exactly the same-sized lead-in as it was for The B last year. The show has given itself a great deal of cushion with this start.

• As for the rest of ABC, Modern Family's was up a rather drastic 31% from last week. While I thought its 3.2 return last week seemed "too low," the 4.2 at this time of year is probably a bit "too high," and I would expect it to eventually settle somewhere in the middle once How to Live declines. The Middle was also up at 8/7c, and Suburgatory made a sound transition back to the 8:30 slot, outrating most 2013 episodes of The Neighbors. Perhaps this is a Parks and Rec situation where the show just belongs at 8:30; if it can maintain this level, I wouldn't be surprised to see it stick in the hour next year. Nashville also swung back up given its best lead-in since November.

• Elsewhere, Criminal Minds and CSI settled back a bit after big jumps in their last episodes, and NBC's Law and Order: SVU and Chicago Fire downticked against the return of CBS competition. But NBC did see a noticeable improvement in the 8:00 hour from Dateline.

• And American Idol adjusted up in finals, so everything I said after prelims about the show dropping 50% from the premiere will have to wait. But it was still yet another new low, and there are only six weeks to go...!

FULL TABLE:

Info			Show				Timeslot		True2
	Viewers	A18-49	Last	LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
The Middle	7.22	2.0	+11%	n/a	16/18	n/a	+11%	+100%	2.01
Suburgatory	5.83	1.8	-5%	-38%	16/19	n/a	+20%	+50%	1.93
Modern Family	10.88	4.2	+31%	+20%	11/19	n/a	+31%	+133%	4.33
How to Live	8.44	2.9	n/a	n/a	1/1	n/a	+53%	+71%	2.75
Nashville	5.54	1.7	+13%	+53%	13/16	n/a	+10%	+79%	1.62
Survivor	9.25	2.5	+0%	n/a	5/8	-11%	+2%	-9%	2.58
Criminal Minds	10.79	2.8	-7%	-4%	14/18	-7%	+133%	-8%	2.95
CSI	9.89	2.1	-9%	-7%	16/18	-28%	+62%	-29%	2.04
Dateline Fri	5.88	1.4	+0%	n/a	4/25	+40%	+40%	-7%	1.49
Law and Order: SVU	6.34	1.6	-6%	+40%	10/18	n/a	-6%	+113%	1.89
Chicago Fire	6.37	1.6	-6%	-6%	15/20	n/a	-6%	+100%	1.75
American Idol Wed	11.76	3.1	-3%	n/a	13/13	-37%	-4%	-36%	3.25
Arrow	2.92	0.9	+0%	n/a	16/19	n/a	+6%	+29%	0.99
Supernatural	1.90	0.8	-20%	+0%	15/19	n/a	-20%	+0%	0.86

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.