Business reality cult favorite Shark Tank swam up in the ratings Friday night.  The ABC series (6 million viewers, 1.7 adults 18-49 rating) jumped 13 percent in the demo this week to rank as last night’s highest-rated show.

Meanwhile, CBS’ freshman legal drama Made In Jersey (6.8 million, 0.8) fell 27 percent. Last season, CBS’ A Gifted Man managed to run its entire first batch of episodes despite low ratings on Friday night. If Jersey doesn’t improve, it’s unsure if CBS will be as patient this time.

Also notable Friday: NBC’s Grimm (5.2 million, 1.6) was steady and Fox’s Fringe (3 million, 1.0) dipped a tenth of a point. But at least Fringe will soon have a better lead-in than an X-Factor repeat.

New Girl ratings were fine on Tuesday.

Everybody else?

Not so much.

“Yeah, looking into what happened,” emailed one network ratings analyst. “We don’t know where everybody went.”

Where to start? CBS won the night, though NCIS (18.5 million viewers, 3.6 adults 18-49 rating), NCIS: LA (14.9 million, 3.1) and new drama Vegas (12.1 million, 2.1) were all down from last week, between 9 and 16 percent. Vegas still won the 10 p.m. hour.

Next came NBC, with 8 p.m.’s The Voice falling sharply (8.2 million, 2.9), but it was a “best of” recap episode, so it sort of doesn’t count. Why is NBC airing a recap of The Voice during the second week of the broadcast season? Didn’t do any favors for Go On (6 million, 2.2), down 19 percent, or New Normal (4.6 million, 1.7), down 15 percent. Both shows just received full season orders, but clearly weren’t done dropping yet. Parenthood (4.5 million, 1.7) was down a tenth. READ FULL STORY »

So in your office pool betting for the first cancelled fall show, did you pick Fox’s The Mob Doctor by chance?

Because you’re probably going to get some extra beer money. Monday night’s episode fell 23 percent to 3.5 million viewers and a mere 1.0 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic. That makes Mob Doc the lowest-rated show on a major broadcast network last night, putting it 47 percent below the second-lowest show. Fox won’t accept that number for long and even Bones repeats would probably do better than this.

I’m told that as of this morning, The Mafia Physician is still scheduled to run next week. But after that it’s being pre-empted by Fox’s baseball coverage. I bet that’s how the whacking is going to happen. “Come on Doc, we’re just taking you off the schedule for a few weeks here to make room for the games, come around behind the barn for a minute … [boom!]” Then, once baseball is over, Fox will be like: “The Mob Doctor? What Mob Doctor? James, we don’t know what you’re talking about…” Bones (6.9 million, 2.1) was the lead-in. READ FULL STORY »

The first batch of piping hot premiere-week DVR data is here, and the impact is bigger than ever. Every TV show benefits from post-premiere DVR viewing, of course, but some shows benefit more than others. According to one major network analyst, the average show now gets about a 27 percent bump in the L+3 data* compared to 18 percent last year.

Based on the first round of figures covering last Monday and Tuesday, a few shows in particular enjoyed big spikes: NBC’s Revolution jumped a whopping 51 percent, climbing to a 5.2 rating in the demo. Revolution‘s Monday night rival, CBS’ Hawaii Five-0, was up 41 percent to a 2.6 rating. That’s good news for Hawaii, which got off to a rather rough start last week. Also: ABC’s Private Practice was up 49 percent to a 2.8 rating.

Another notable gainer: Fox’s New Girl, up 38 percent to a 3.8 rating. Both Tuesday New Girl episodes climbed by the same percentage after disappointing a bit for their second season return.

Now here’s the real question, and one you probably won’t see asked when you read stories out there touting big DVR gains: Does the new data actually change anything? READ FULL STORY »

ABC’s Sunday drama block launched to strong ratings overall, but newcomer 666 Park Ave. opened surprisingly weak.

The season two return of Once Upon a Time (11 million viewers, 3.8 adults 18-49 demo) was last night’s top-rated entertainment show and returned down only 5 percent from last year’s high flying series premiere. (See our interview with the Once Upon showrunners about last night’s episode).

Revenge (9.5 million, 3.2), in its new time period, did well too — down a mere tenth of a point from its Wednesday night series debut last fall and tying last year’s Desperate Housewives premiere in this slot. This rating is firmly better than the second half of Revenge‘s season, suggesting the move to Sunday paid off. Airing against CBS’ Good Wife (9.8 million, 1.8), which declined 18 percent, Revenge firmly got the upper hand in the adult demo.

And then there was 666 Park Ave (7 million, 2.2), which was tracking to have a strong opening. READ FULL STORY »

Bang! Yesterday was the first official night of the 2012-13 broadcast TV season and we’re off and running. For the first time since May, every Monday time slot was filled with a new show. I’m sure that insane Seattle Seahawks vs. Green Bay Packers game on ESPN doubtless drew some eyeballs away from the Big Four networks, so let’s keep that in mind.

The biggest news: NBC’s Revolution (9.3 million viewers, 3.5 rating among adults 18-49) took a 15 percent dip in its second week, but still ruled 10 p.m. in the demo. In fact, Revolution easily beat the premieres of ABC’s Castle (11.4 million, 2.5), down 22 percent from last year, and crushed CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 (8 million, 1.9), down 44 percent to a series low.

If that seems low for Hawaii, CBS would probably agree. The network’s entire lineup returned last night and took a hit, though year-over-year comparisons are tough because last fall included the ridiculously high debut for Two and a Half Men starring new hire Ashton Kutcher. Plus, in the past, football has tended to impact CBS shows a bit more than rivals, but we gotta play the numbers as we see them here. And then there’s NBC’s The Voice (11.9 million, 4.2) — moving this show into fall might have really shaken up the race.

NBC won Monday night in the demo, overall. Voice was down 11 percent from last week with the increased competition, which isn’t bad. Voice hammered the premiere of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars (14.6 million, 2.7), down 32 percent from last year despite airing an all-stars edition. READ FULL STORY »