Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 2/4/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: American Idol (3.1) was up a tenth, while the 9:30 Fresh Off the Boat (2.3) and (as usual) The 100 (0.5) were down a tenth.

• ABC's Fresh Off the Boat impressed, with a 2.5 rating at 8:30 that actually tied The Goldbergs' season high in the slot, and it built noticeably on its lead-in from The Middle (2.2). The 2.4 at 9:30 was not quite as promising, especially since ABC had an above-average showing from its lead-in Modern Family (3.4), but it was still a noticeable improvement on recent Black-ish results. Also, there's a little piece of added competition in the 9:00 hour called...

• ...Empire, which took yet another step up to a whooping 4.6 in week five. This put it above the season-to-date average of current top broadcast series The Big Bang Theory for the first time, and it's all the more astounding since the show faced a noticeable increase in competition this week. It continued to help boost American Idol (3.0), which bucked its usual trend by growing in the first post-audition week; this was just 12% behind Wednesday #5 last season.

• The struggles continued for the CBS and NBC crime dramas. On CBS, The Mentalist (1.2), Criminal Minds (2.0) and Stalker (1.3) all saw very low-end results, while NBC's The Mysteries of Laura (1.0) proved its big drop to 1.0 a few weeks ago was not a fluke. The only real positive on these two networks was Chicago PD (1.6), which probably benefited from a crossover with Chicago Fire.

• On the CW, Arrow (1.2) is still heating up, hitting its highest rating of the season that wasn't a crossover with The Flash. The 100 had yet another preliminary 0.6. 

FULL TABLE:

Info		Show						Timeslot		True
	A18-49	Skew	Last		LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
The Middle	2.2	34%	+0%	+0.0	n/a	2/12	+0%	+69%	+0%	2.3
Fresh Off the Boat	2.5	40%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	n/a	+92%	+47%	2.5
Modern Family	3.4	44%	+13%	+0.4	+0.2	6/13	-3%	+127%	-3%	3.3
Fresh Off the Boat	2.3	39%	-8%	-0.2	+1.2	2/2	n/a	+109%	+53%	2.2
Nashville	1.3	33%	-13%	-0.2	+0.0	9/11	+0%	+30%	+0%	1.3
							ABC:	+81%	+13%
The Mentalist	1.2	17%	-8%	-0.1	n/a	9/10	n/a	-11%	-17%	1.4
Criminal Minds	2.0	24%	-5%	-0.1	-0.1	13/14	-29%	-7%	-29%	2.3
Stalker	1.3	22%	-13%	-0.2	-0.1	15/15	n/a	-13%	-37%	1.3
							CBS:	-10%	-29%
The Mysteries of Laura	1.0	20%	+0%	+0.0	n/a	12/13	n/a	+43%	-5%	1.2
Law and Order: SVU	1.3	27%	+0%	+0.0	+0.2	12/13	-28%	+100%	-28%	1.7
Chicago PD	1.6	27%	+7%	+0.1	+0.0	3/13	-6%	+146%	-3%	1.7
							NBC:	+95%	-13%
American Idol Wed	3.1	35%	+7%	+0.2	n/a	3/5	-21%	+7%	-21%	3.1
Empire	4.6	51%	+7%	+0.3	+0.2	1/5	n/a	+6%	+18%	4.5
							Fox:	+6%	-1%
Arrow	1.2	52%	+9%	+0.1	n/a	2/12	+20%	+9%	+20%	1.3
The 100	0.5	42%	+0%	+0.0	+0.1	4/11	n/a	+0%	+0%	0.5
							CW:	+6%	+13%
							Big5:	+22%	-5%

KEY (click to expand)

A18-49 - Adults 18-49 rating. Percentage of US TV-owning adults 18-49 watching the program.
Skew - Percentage of adults 18-49 within the show's total viewership.
Last - A18-49 difference (percent and numerical) from the show's previous episode.
LeLa - A18-49 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 so far this season.
y2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the show's rating a year ago.
TLa - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one week ago.
Ty2y - Percent difference between A18-49 and the network's rating in the timeslot one year ago.
True - 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.