NBC's critical reshuffling of
its 10 p.m. and late-night programming is showing promise.
On Tuesday night, "Parenthood" -- its new midseason scripted drama -- posted a decent Nielsen preliminary 3.1 rating/9 share among
18-49 viewers in its premiere, winning the time period at 10 p.m. "Parenthood" beat CBS' "The Good Wife," which earned a 2.7/8; "Wife" had been winning some 10 p.m. outings.
The NBC show was
helped by a two-hour "Biggest Loser" lead-in, which gave the new show a solid sendoff. But the reality show lost ground a bit, down 11% versus its recent original outing.
"Parenthood" was
heavily promoted during the Olympics, along with the Jerry Seinfeld-backed reality show "The Marriage Ref" and Jay Leno's move back to "The Tonight Show."
However, other big network stalwarts
took a bit of a tumble. ABC's "Lost" was off 13% to a 4.0/10, its lowest numbers for the season so far.
advertisement
advertisement
"American Idol" naturally had lots to do with it, scoring another strong 8.6
rating/11 share among 18-49 viewers, down a bit from the week before.
For TV analysts, some of these lower numbers are a bit confusing -- given that a week ago, NBC's Vancouver Olympics sucked
in a lot of viewership, but ratings for other network shows were higher.
The second night of Jay Leno's return was exactly like the first -- a 1.6 rating against 18-49 viewers. "Late Show with
David Letterman" slipped a bit, to a 1.0 rating from a 1.1 rating.
Leno's numbers are half a rating point better than O'Brien's, who at the helm of "Tonight Show" was only getting around a 1.1
to 1.2 rating average among 18-49 viewers.
After Fox's top 8.6/11 in 18-49 viewers, CBS took a 3.3/9, followed by NBC with a 3.1/8; ABC at a 2.5/7; Univision with a 1.4/4; and CW finishing at a
0.3/1.