TV Ratings Wednesday: 'Suburgatory' Gets A Good Start; 'X Factor' Leads Fox Win, As Post-Premiere Declines Vary

Scoreboard
Adults 18-49: Rating/Share	3.9/11	3.3/9	3.3/9	1.8/5	1.6/4	0.7/2
Adults 18-34: Rating/Share	3.2/10	2.9/9	1.9/6	1.9/5	1.2/3	0.8/2
Total Viewers (million)	11.514	9.345	11.575	4.095	6.270	1.569

The X Factor's 3.9 adults 18-49 rating was enough to lift Fox on top of the adults 18-49 ratings for the night, but it was down 11% from last week's premiere Wednesday.

Again, post-premiere ratings declines varied, and for the second time this week NBC was beaten by Univision among adults 18-49. Yikes.

NBC's Up All Night 2.1 adults 18-49 rating was down 13% from last week. Free Agents fell 23% to a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating (it may beat The Playboy Club off the air). Harry's Law stayed steady vs. last week, and low, at just a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating. Law & Order: SVU's 2.0 adults 18-49 rating was down 17% from its premiere last week. 2.4

ABC's The Middle was down 16% from its premiere to a 2.6 adults 18-49 rating. The series premiere of Suburgatory drew a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating, up 27% vs. the premiere of Better With You last Fall. Our polled readers were too pessimistic. Modern Family slipped just a big, down 8% to a 5.6 adults 18-49 rating. The season premiere of Happy Endings scored a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating, down 6% from last season's Cougar Town premiere on the same night last Fall. avg. Revenge's 2.7 adults 18-49 rating fell 18% from last week's premiere.

CBS's Survivor: South Pacific 3.1 adults 18-49 rating was down 3% vs. last week. Criminal Minds' was down 12% from its premiere to a 3.6 adults 18-49 rating. CSI fell just 6% from its premiere to a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating.

CW's H8R was up 50% (0.2!) ratings points from last week to a 0.6 adults 18-49 rating. America's Next Top Model was up a tenth from last week to a 0.8 adults 18-49 rating.

Late-night results are below the primetime data.

Overnight ratings for Wednesday, September 28, 2011:

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via NBC press note:

In Late-Night Metered Markets Wednesday night:

In Nielsen's 56 metered markets, household results were: "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," 2.7/7; CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," 2.7/7; and ABC's combo of "Nightline," 3.2/7; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 1.6/5.

In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 results were: “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” 0.8/4; "Late Show," 0.7/3; "Nightline," 1.1/4; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 0.5/3.

At 12:35 a.m., "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (1.4/5 in metered-market households) beat CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (1.3/5). In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Late Night" (0.5/3 in 18-49) topped "Late Late Show" (0.4/2).

At 1:35 a.m., "Last Call with Carson Daly" averaged a 0.8/4 in metered-market households and a 0.3/2 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with local people meters.

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NOTE: All ratings are "live plus same day" from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise indicated. Starting with data for Mon 3/28/11, all program ratings will now include multiple viewings of a telecast on a DVR. Previously only the first viewing was counted. HUT/PUT will now consist of Live TV viewing and DVR playback at time of play. Previously, HUT/PUT consisted of live viewing and DVR playback credited to time of live telecast.Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2011 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.

Definitions:

Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.

Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.

Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)

Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.

For more information see Numbers 101.