Thursday Ratings: Strong night for Fox, NBC; so-so night for CBS, ABC
Fox's American Idol and NBC's Parks and Recreation had significant boosts this week while the CBS and ABC lineups floundered. Grey's Anatomy and The Office tied for top scripted ratings while The Mentalist had the largest scripted audience.
Fox led the evening with the American Idol results show. Despite Jacob Lusk being the obvious boot, 20.812 million tuned in to see who else landed in the bottom two, giving the show a 6.2 rating (+0.5). Bones received a healthy bounce as a result, scoring 3.3 (+0.5) with over 11 million viewers.
CBS took second place, though the ratings slide from last week continued for most of the night. Big Bang Theory scored 3.1 (-0.2), Rules of Engagement scored 2.2 (-0.1) and CSI hit a new low of 2.2 (-0.2). The Mentalist inched up to 2.7 (+0.1) and was the most watched scripted show of the night.
ABC was close behind in third place. Wipeout did just that, hitting a low of 1.4 (-0.5, three weeks). Grey's Anatomy slipped to 3.5 (-0.2) while Private Practice ticked up to 2.3 (+0.1).
NBC had a good night, relatively speaking, though it finished in fourth. Community continued its 1.4 streak for a fourth week. The first Michael Scott-free episode of The Office scored 3.5, down from last week's 4.2 but up from the penultimate Steve Carell episode. Parks and Recreation scored 2.6 (+0.3), its highest score since January. The season finale of 30 Rock rose to 2.1 (+0.2) while Outsourced fell to 1.5 (-0.2, three weeks).
Over on the CW, The Vampire Diaries rose to 1.3 (+0.1) while Nikita had an audience boost that gave the show a score of 0.8 (+0.2).
Mike McComb – TVLatest.com
Follow Mike on Twitter @Rube_Goldberg
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