RATINGS RECAP: 10/6/10

ABC
8:00 The Middle
Viewers: 8.0 million, 18-49 demo: 2.5
8:30 Better With You
Viewers: 6.9 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
9:00 Modern Family
Viewers: 11.4 million, 18-49 demo: 4.6
9:30 Cougar Town
Viewers: 7.1 million, 18-49 demo: 3.0
10:00 The Whole Truth
Viewers: 4.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3

CBS
8:00 Survivor
Viewers: 12.1 million, 18-49 demo: 3.8
9:00 Criminal Minds
Viewers: 13.9 million, 18-49 demo: 3.5
10:00 The Defenders
Viewers: 9.3 million, 18-49 demo: 2.2

NBC
8:00 Undercovers
Viewers: 6.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5
9:00 Law & Order: SVU
Viewers: 8.7 million, 18-49 demo: 2.6
10:00 Law & Order: Los Angeles
Viewers: 8.3 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4 

FOX
8:00 Hell's Kitchen
Viewers: 6.4 million, 18-49 demo: 3.0
9:00 Hell's Kitchen
Viewers: 7.0 million, 18-49 demo: 3.3 

On the third Wednesday of the season, ABC had it usual lineup. The Middle was down another .4 in total viewers but was steady in the demo. New comedy Better With You dropped just slightly in total viewers and went up .1 in the demo. While it's still lower than it should be, the slight rise in the demo is an encouraging sign. ABC should be patient with this show as its not deprecating like last year's disastrous Hank. Plus it's a funny show! Modern Family remained ABC's top draw of the night and was down some in viewers but even in the demo. Cougar Town saw slight increases in viewers and the demo but still lost a lot of Family's audience. At 10pm, The Whole Truth was off a hair in total viewers and up slightly in the demo. It's still a huge underperformer but the fact that it's not continuing to drop might buy it a little bit of time.

CBS had winning numbers as usual. Survivor was down just marginally in viewers but up some in the demo as its Wednesday move continues to pay off. Criminal Minds was down a bit in viewers and the demo but remained the top 9pm draw (though it finished behind Modern Family in the demo as usual). At 10pm, The Defenders continued to drop losing over a million viewers from last week. While 9 million viewers would be ok for any other network's new show, these kind of numbers aren't going to cut it especially when CBS has Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior waiting in the wings. If The Defenders doesn't show improvement, it's hard to imagine it staying in this slot in midseason.

NBC got more bad news for its freshmen series. Undercovers dipped again although not as much. It still is performing worse than the cancelled Mercy so consider this a rare miss by JJ Abrams. It's got to be disappointing to NBC which had high hopes for this show. Law & Order: SVU was down a bit from last week and would be better off in another slot where it's not competing with Criminal Minds. Law & Order: Los Angeles also gave NBC bad news as it was off 22% in viewers and 25% in the demo from its premiere. It still managed to win the demo, but it had one of the biggest second week drops of all new series this fall.

FOX continued to have success with Hell's Kitchen as alternative Wednesday night program. Both the 8:00 and 9:00 episodes rose from last week and the 8:00 episode managed to tie Undercovers in viewers and easily pass Undercovers and ABC's comedies for second in the demo. It is a very steady performer for FOX which needs a few of those.