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On another night with more lackluster numbers for many shows, Fox’s ”American Idol” held steady as the net dominated the night. ABC’s new ”Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23” looked pretty good in its bow behind the first original ”Modern Family” in four weeks.
According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, ”American Idol” averaged a 4.9 rating/14 share in adults 18-49 and 16.4 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m., on par with last week when the show did a 4.7 in the prelims and rose to a 4.9 in the nationals. From 8 to 10, ”Idol” beat both CBS and ABC by 6 shares in adults 18-49. Still, it was off by about 30% from the comparable night a year ago. At ABC, ”The Middle” (2.1/7 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall) and ”Suburgatory” (2.1/6 in 18-49, 6.1 million viewers overall) matched their season lows in the opening hour, and ”Modern Family” followed with its lowest demo delivery of the season for an original episode (4.1/11 in 18-49, 10.3 million viewers overall), though it remained the night’s top-rated scripted program among young adults. The debut of ”Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23” ran third in 18-49 at 9:30 p.m. (2.9/7 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall), coming in lower than some episode of ”Happy Endings” in the timeslot this season but holding on to a bigger chunk of ”Family’s” audience than any show since the premiere night of ”Happy Endings” a year ago. And at 10, the clip show ”Revenge: From the Beginning” averaged a 1.6/4 in 18-49 and 5.6 million viewers overall; the rookie hit returns with new episodes next week. CBS finished second on the night across the board, as ”Survivor” hit a season low kicking off the night (2.6/8 in 18-49, 9.6 million viewers overall) and at 9, ”Criminal Minds” (3.0/8 in 18-49, 11.8 million viewers overall) matched its low set last week. And closing things out, ”CSI” hit a season low but comfortably led its 10 p.m. hour (2.3/6 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall). NBC saw week-to-week declines for new half-hours ”Off Their Rockers” (1.6/5 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) and ”Best Friends Forever” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 2.9 million viewers overall), and the timeslot debut of ”Rock Center with Brian Williams” was a bust at 9 p.m. (0.6/2 in 18-49, 2.8 million viewers overall). At 10, an original ”Law and Order: SVU” was at season-low levels in its return (1.6/4 in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall) but more than doubled its demo lead-in score. At CW, ”America’s Next Top Model” hit a low (0.5/1 in 18-49), with the one-time hit drawing just 1 million viewers overall. Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.9/14; CBS, 2.6/7; ABC, 2.4/7; Univision, 1.4/4; NBC, 1.1/3; CW, 0.4/1. In total viewers: Fox, 16.4 million; CBS, 10.4 million; ABC, 6.9 million; NBC, 4.2 million; Univision, 3.7 million; CW, 1.0 million.
