Thursday, October 11, 2012 ratings — Beauty and the Beast premiered on The CW last night, preceded by the return of The Vampire Diaries. We also had original episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Last Resort, The X Factor, 30 Rock, and Up All Night. The Vice Presidential debates aired on ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC from 9pm until 11pm.
On CBS, The Big Bang Theory won the night with a 4.2 rating (-14% week-to-week) in the 18-49 demographic and 13.77 million viewers. It was followed by Two and a Half Men with a 3.4 rating (-6%) and 11.74 million. CBS’ debate coverage tied with NBC in the demo with a 2.1 rating clearly won in viewership with 10.4 million.
On FOX, The X Factor drew a 2.9 rating (-9%) with 8.25 million. For debate coverage, FOX came in third with a 2.0 rating and 5.35 million viewers.
On ABC, Last Resort continues to sink with a 1.6 rating (-16%) and 6.93 million. It tied The CW’s Vampire Diaries in the demo. The alphabet network’s debate coverage was in fourth place with a 1.8 rating and 6.9 million.
On The CW, The Vampire Diaries returned with a whopping 1.6 demo rating and 3.48 million viewers. Year-to-year, the show was up by 7% in the demo (vs a 1.5 rating) and up by 12% in viewership (vs 3.1 million).
The series premiere of Beauty and the Beast drew a very healthy (for The CW anyway) 1.3 rating with 3.16 million viewers. Year-to-year, compared to The Secret Circle’s premiere in the same post-Vampire Diaries timeslot, the network was on par in the demo and up slightly in viewership (vs 3.05 million).
This was a very promising start for the new series but it’s important to remember that, while Secret Circle also had a positive start, its ratings slid over the course of the season and was cancelled in May. The same could happen to Beauty and the Beast.
On NBC, 30 Rock drew a 1.4 rating (0% change) with 3.82 million viewers. It was followed by Up All Night and a 1.2 rating (-14%) with 3.46 million. Both shows were beaten by The CW’s Vampire Diaries. NBC’s debate coverage tied with CBS for a 2.1 demo rating and drew a second place 6.77 million.
What do you think? Are you surprised by the strength of Beauty and the Beast’s strong premiere numbers. Will they slide faster than Secret Circle’s. Are you worried about Last Resort? What were you watching last night?
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About CW, you did a good job reminding people that 3 million viewers isn’t so impressive even if CW often struggles to get into single digits. CW still spends outrageous amounts of money to promote its failed shows and its puny results should not be hailed when all they show is that you can get a tiny audience for your pilot by adapting a Geek-friendly subject. Sadly, CW (and other networks) will conclude that adapting and re-booting the same shows over and over is clearly the way to go as they keep refusing to face the reality that having a… Read more »
You place WAY too much emphasis on 18-49 numbers.
18-49 is not only an ageist measure, it is also only significant when it comes to spin.
Shows and networks that fail to attract big audiences love it because they can claim false victories.
But most importantly, you’d never highlight the “all-important rich male demographic” or the “all-important white demographic”, so why highlight 18-49?
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Would like to see Last Resort to make it. I wish they would stop with all these comments about shows.
You say Last Resort was down in ratings, yet over at Fulton Critic they say otherwise – http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2012/10/12/last-resort-continues-to-deliver-strong-year-to-year-growth-for-abc-393003/20121012abc02/ “Last Resort” Continues to Deliver Strong Year-to-Year Growth for ABC” “ABC freshman Last Resort once again beat out NBC’s established comedies by wide margins, outdelivering the combo of 30 Rock and Up All Night by 3.3 million viewers and by 23% in Adults 18-49” “The new ABC drama continued to generate double-digit time period improvement year to year (up for its 3rd straight telecast), growing its hour by 17% in Total Viewers and by 23% in Adults 18-49 over the same night… Read more »
That’s a press release from ABC so of course they’re going to say positive things. Comparing it to Charlie’s Angels (last year’s timeslot occupant) is a good way to make the numbers sound good. The fact remains that Last Resort was down when compared to last week’s episode. Last week’s was down when compared to the premiere.
Well said, Admin. I am siding with you on that one and you do get a kudos to offset some of my complaints about over-emphasizing demo numbers.
Last Resort started with low ratings (like all new shows this year) and is fading fast.
ABC loves to spin its numbers and it’s good because they don’t have any real scripted hit.
This is also a sad example of a site doing a copy-and-paste of a PR release and calling it news.
That’s what most entertainment “news” consists of these days…
Poor Last Resort. I really wanted this show to last.