by Last week was a big week of premieres, featuring lots of new shows, plus the return of your favorite comedies and dramas. Two and Half Men’s season 9 premiere, which marks the first appearance of Ashton Kutcher, was the big winner, plus Modern Family posted its biggest ratings and viewers yet. The big dissapointent was the series premiere of The X Factor, which was the return of Simon Cowell to American television. Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory surpassed The X Factor in viewers and the demo. Glee, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy were down compare to last year.
Here’s some of the rating highlights of last week:
- On Monday September 19th 2011, Ashton Kutcher’s debut on Two and a Half Men scored a massive 27.76 million viewers and a 10.3 rating/24 share among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m., more than doubling the 8:30 p.m. portion of an expanded edition of How I Met Your Mother (Viewers: #1, 12.24 million; A18-49: #1, 5.1/13). Two and a Half Men led into the series-premiere of sitcom 2 Broke Girls, which was amply sampled at 19.15 million viewers and a 7.0/16 among adults 18-49 at 9:30 p.m. Following Dancing with the Stars, at 10 p.m., season four of ABC crime solver Castle opened with 13.60 million viewers (#1) and a second-place 3.3/ 8 in the demo at 10 p.m. In series premiere news, The Playboy Club on NBC finished a very distant third at 10 p.m. with 5.00 million viewers and a 1.6/ 4 among adults 18-49.
- On Tuesday September 20th 2011, Fox’s New Girl, the Zooey Deschanel-fronted freshman comedy premiered to 10.1 million total viewers and a first-place 4.7/12 among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m. Earlier in the night, at 8 p.m., season three of Glee lost noticeable steam with 8.91 million viewers (#3) and a 3.8/11 among adults 18-49 (#2). Compared to the year-ago opener, Glee was down by 3.54 million viewers and a hefty 32 percent in the demo. CBS’ NCIS finished as the most-watched show of the evening, as expected, with 19.55 million viewers at 8 p.m and 4.2 rating/12 share in the demo. Next on CBS was the third season-opener of spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles at 16.69 million viewers (#1) and a second-place 3.6/ 9 among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m. In series-premiere news, crime solver Unforgettable on CBS at 10 p.m. launched with a dominant finish in both total viewers (13.97 million).
- On Wednesday September 21st 2011, ABC’s Modern Family (Season Premiere, 1 Hour) was the highest rated show in viewers and in the demo with 14.53 million viewers, and 6.1/15. That led to the series premiere of Revenge at 3.3/9 and10.02 million viewers. Meanwhile, the much buzzed The X Factor, from 8-10pm, only got 4.4/12 and 12.49 million viewers, which proves it is not in the same league as American Idol in numbers. CBS shows also stayed strong with the season-premiere of underrated Criminal Minds (Viewers: #2, 14.07 million; A18-49: #3, 4.1/10), and the season-premiere of relocated CSI (Viewers: #1, 12.59 million; A18-49: #2, 3.1/ 8), which now features Ted Danson.
- On Thursday September 22nd 2011, the ABC reboot of Charlie’s Angels attracted 8.7 million viewers and a 2.1 rating in the prized adults 18-49 demo, which are underwhelming numbers. The two-hour season-premiere of Grey���s Anatomy, which averaged 10.32 million viewers and a 4.1/11 among adults 18-49 from 9-11 p.m. One year earlier (in the 9 p.m. hour), Grey’s opened with 14.32 million viewers and a 5.4/14 in the demo on 9/23/10. Also a series premiere, the NBC’s US version of Prime Suspect drew a lackluster 6 million sets of eyeballs and a 1.9 demo rating. The season-premiere of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, plus a second episode, led the 8 p.m. hour, with 14.35 million viewers and a 4.9 rating/14 share among adults 18-49, which was right on par with one year earlier. That led into the series-premiere of Person of Interest, which finished first in total viewers (13.22 million) and fourth among adults 18-49 3.1/ at 9 p.m. The new season of CBS’ The Mentalist at 10 p.m. finished first in total viewers (13.36 million) and second among adults 18-49 (2.8/ 7). The X Factor on Fox for winning the evening among adults 18-49 with a 4.1/11 in the demo. In total viewers, it finished second overall with 12.09 million
- On Friday September 23rd 2011, the series premiere of CBS drama A Gifted Man was adequately sampled at 9.31 million viewers (#1) and a second-place 1.4 rating/5 share among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. On Fox, Fringe’s new season premiered to low numbers (viewers: 3.53 million (#4), A18-49: 1.5/ 5 (#3)).
- On Sunday September 25th 2011, the highly publicized new drama Pan Am on ABC was sampled, with 10.87 million viewers (#2) and a 3.1/ 8 among adults 18-49 (#2) at 10 p.m. It built from the season-premiere of lead-in Desperate Housewives (Viewers: #3, 9.77 million; A18-49: #2, 3.1/ 7 at 9 p.m.) by 1.10 million viewers. Last season, Desperate Housewives opened the season with a much heftier 13.06 million viewers and a 4.3/10 among adults 18-49 on 9/26/10. On CBS, The Good Wife premiered in its new timeslot against ABC’s Desperate Housewives with 10.50 million viewers (#2) and 2.2/ 5 at 9 p.m.
