This week’s Thursday lineup was eventful to say the least. Veteran series’ for the most part performed as expected, but a story is to be had in what the relatively younger programming had to offer.
We begin today’s look at the Nielsen data by analyzing what happened with NBC as that was the most interesting topic from the overnight numbers. The broadcaster switched out an SNL Weekend Update Thursday for the season premiere of 30 Rock and it was embarrassing to say the least. The comedy only returned to a 1.3 18-49 across 3.4 million viewers. This is lower than the show’s spring finale and down a huge chunk from its January debut last season. That did not help Up All Night (1.4 18-49/3.1 million) which struggled as well.
The good news for the broadcaster though is that The Office (2.1 18-49/4.1 million) continues to perform relatively flat as the show has seemed to stop the falling ratings that began a few years ago. This helped Parks & Recreation to a 1.9 18-49/3.5 million which is up from last week by about 20%. It is with all this information in mind that gives us the sense that Parks & Recreation will eventually get its full season due to lack of network competition.
Our next story lies within the primetime schedule of CBS. The Big Bang Theory (4.9 18-49/15.38 million) and Two and a Half Men (3.7 18-49/12.7 million) continue to perform very well for the network, and that helped Person of Interest (3.1 18-49/14.62 million) succeed. Interestingly enough though, Elementary was down in its second week on the air to a 2.6 18-49/11.2 million (about 15-20% off.) Seeing how the rest of the grouping at CBS was up from the week prior, it is not exactly validating to see the one rookie in the bunch be the sole program to shrink its audience.
As for Fox, that is as predictable as they come. The X Factor found a 3.1 18-49 with 9.1 million tuning in while Glee posted a 2.6 18-49 with viewers at 6.2 million.
Finally, we take a quick look at ABC who saw a 20% loss in Last Resort’s second episode (1.8 18-49/7.9 million) and relative stability in both Grey’s Anatomy (3.7 18-49/10.6 million) and Scandal (2.1 18-49/6.8 million.)