RATINGS RECAP: 12/8/10

ABC
8:00 The Middle 
Viewers: 8.7 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4
8:30 Better With You
Viewers: 7.1 million, 18-49 demo: 2.2
9:00 Modern Family
Viewers: 11.1 million, 18-49 demo: 4.2
9:30 Cougar Town
Viewers: 6.4 million, 18-49 demo: 2.6
10:00 Modern Family (Repeat)
Viewers: 4.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.9
10:30 Cougar Town (Repeat)
Viewers: 3.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3

CBS
8:00 Survivor
Viewers: 12.1 million, 18-49 demo: 3.6
9:00 Criminal Minds
Viewers: 14.2 million, 18-49 demo: 3.5
10:00 The Defenders
Viewers: 10.5 million, 18-49 demo: 2.0

NBC
8:00 The Sing Off
Viewers: 7.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.7
10:00 Law & Order: SVU (Repeat)
Viewers: 6.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.8

FOX
8:00 Human Target
Viewers: 5.6 million, 18-49 demo: 1.6
9:00 Hell's Kitchen
Viewers: 5.3 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3

ABC had a new lineup of its sitcoms and followed that with repeats of two of them in place of the now fully gone The Whole Truth. At 8pm, A Christmas The Middle was up four tenths in viewers and two tenths in the demo from the last new airing two weeks ago. This has turned into an extremely solid lead-off for ABC. Better With You followed and was up two tenths in viewers and even in the demo. At 9pm, Modern Family was up half a million viewers and half a demo point from two weeks ago. It's a nice gain but that was from Thanksgiving. Overall, it seems low. Cougar Town followed and was down two tenths in viewers but up two tenths in the demo. To be down in total viewers from a Thanksgiving eve airing is a big red flag. Low-rated repeats at 10pm of Family and Cougar were an improvement over Truth.

CBS was fully new for the first time in three weeks. Survivor was down two tenths in viewers but even in the demo from last week though it had tougher competition this week. Criminal Minds was down two tenths in viewers and three tenths in the demo from the last new episode three weeks ago as it remains a powerhouse. The Defenders was up 1.1 million viewers and a tenth in the demo from three weeks ago. The total viewer number boost is good but its still losing a lot of Minds' audience.

NBC had good results for The Sing Off which held up well on night number two. It was off a million viewers but only a tenth in the demo from its Monday season premiere. Will NBC consider making this a weekly series? At 10pm, a repeat of Law & Order: SVU was well above repeat numbers it was getting at 9pm which bodes well for its chances with new episodes in this timeslot. 

FOX had low numbers. Human Target was down two tenths in viewers and even in the demo from a week ago. These numbers don't make its renewal chances very likely. At 9pm, Hell's Kitchen was down half a million viewers and three tenths in the demo with renewed competition on ABC and CBS. It seemed to be doing better when it aired two episodes in a row.