Spotted Ratings, Wednesday 3/4/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Empire (5.8) was up one more tenth.

• CBS launched newbie CSI: Cyber at a 1.8 rating, with nearly full retention of its lead-in from Criminal Minds (1.9) in both viewership and demo rating. It's 10% behind the Stalker premiere from the fall, though that one had a much larger 2.7 Minds lead-in. It's another of those premieres that will have to hold very well in subsequent weeks to be a contender in a very crowded CBS drama field. Despite the return of Survivor (2.3) at 8/7c, Minds (1.9) wasn't even able to grow from its last episode three weeks ago, perhaps thanks in part to...

• ... yet another new series high from Empire (5.7), up yet another three tenths in week nine. I don't really know what else to say except that this passed The Big Bang Theory's season premiere to become the biggest regularly-scheduled broadcast entertainment episode of the season.

• ABC had another sensational comedy Wednesday in its last original week before the departure of Empire. The Middle, the only show that had an off night last week, bounced back to 2.2 this time, while The Goldbergs (2.5) and Modern Family (3.4) each held onto last week's surges completely. Nashville (1.4) and Black-ish (2.3) inched up from last week's finals, but they've adjusted down before.

• Despite new heights for Empire, its lead-in American Idol (2.1) had quite a rough time as it had to deal with a strong two-hour The Voice recap special (2.1) on NBC.

FULL TABLE:

Info		Show						Timeslot		True
	A18-49	Skew	Last		LeLa	Rank	y2y	TLa	Ty2y
The Middle	2.2	34%	+10%	+0.2	n/a	2/16	+16%	+10%	+16%	2.2
The Goldbergs	2.5	40%	+0%	+0.0	+0.2	1/15	+67%	+0%	+47%	2.5
Modern Family	3.4	45%	+0%	+0.0	+0.0	6/17	+0%	+0%	+0%	3.4
Black-ish	2.3	43%	+5%	+0.1	+0.0	9/16	n/a	+5%	+35%	2.0
Nashville	1.4	33%	+8%	+0.1	+0.1	4/15	-7%	+8%	-7%	1.6
							ABC:	+4%	+13%
Survivor	2.3	30%	-4%	-0.1	n/a	2/2	-4%	-4%	-4%	2.3
Criminal Minds	1.9	23%	+0%	+0.0	+0.9	15/16	-27%	-3%	-27%	2.0
CSI: Cyber	1.8	22%	n/a	n/a	n/a	1/1	n/a	+24%	+6%	1.9
							CBS:	+3%	-10%
The Voice (R)	2.1	31%						+42%	+45%	2.2
Chicago PD (R)	1.1	29%						-29%	-29%	1.2
							NBC:	+18%	+19%
American Idol Wed	2.1	30%	-22%	-0.6	n/a	9/9	-22%	-22%	-25%	2.2
Empire	5.8	51%	+7%	+0.4	-0.6	1/9	n/a	+7%	+111%	5.6
							Fox:	-2%	+42%
Arrow (R)	0.4	36%						-64%	-43%	0.5
The 100	0.5	43%	+0%	+0.0	-0.7	4/15	n/a	+11%	+25%	0.6
							CW:	-42%	-18%
							Big5:	-0%	+15%

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.