RATINGS RECAP: 9/21/11

ABC
8:00 The Middle
Viewers: 9.7 million, 18-49 demo: 3.1
9:00 Modern Family
Viewers: 14.5 million, 18-49 demo: 6.1
10:00 Revenge
Viewers: 10.0 million, 18-49 demo: 3.3

CBS
8:00 Survivor
Viewers: 10.5 million, 18-49 demo: 3.2
9:00 Criminal Minds
Viewers: 14.1 million, 18-49 demo: 4.1
10:00 CSI
Viewers: 12.7 million, 18-49 demo: 3.2

NBC
8:00 Up All Night
Viewers: 6.1 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4
8:30 Free Agents
Viewers: 3.9 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3
9:00 Harry's Law
Viewers: 7.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.2
10:00 Law & Order: SVU
Viewers: 7.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4

FOX
8:00 The X-Factor
Viewers: 12.5 million, 18-49 demo: 4.4

The series premiere of the highly anticipated The X-Factor came out of the gate with a whimper on Wednesday night. While 12.5 million viewers and a 4.4 demo is strong in most cases, this was supposed to be the fall's answer to American Idol and it reunited Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. Yet it did not come anywhere close to Idol numbers. If this was the sampling, that's not good news for FOX which put a lot of its eggs in the X-Factor basket this fall. Obviously a 4.4 demo is not a bad number at all but FOX has to be disappointed with these numbers considering they promoted it everywhere. Guess American Idol is bigger than Simon Cowell considering the ratings went up when he left and his new show couldn't even play on the same field.

ABC had a great Wednesday night with season premieres of two hit comedies and a series premiere of a new drama. Will the 10pm curse finally be broken? At 8pm, the season premiere of The Middle was up nicely from last year's season premiere of 8.8 million and a 2.7 demo. It hit a series high in the demo against some stiff competition which is great news for ABC. This show has really become a reliable lead-off to the night. It was followed by the first two episodes of the new season of multiple Emmy award winner Modern Family. It counted as one rating even though it was two episodes but it was up to a fantastic 6.1 demo, a series high. This has been a great week for scripted programming with many favorites up in the ratings and many new shows sampled well. Finally, the series premiere of Revenge had a great sampling at 10pm. ABC has struck out in this slot many times in recent years but this was the most promising debut. Whether it can sustain anywhere close to this or not is another issue but ABC promoted the show well and wisely had Modern Family as a lead-in. It managed to win the demo against two long time hits. It's a great start for a show that many thought might not be around for very long. Reviews have been generally positive too which helps.

CBS also had plenty to be happy about. Week two of Survivor was down just two tenths in viewers and the demo against much fiercer competition. This show seems to just float along regardless of where it airs or what it's against. While the overall trend is down for this show, it is doing great for a show that has been around over a decade. At 9pm, the season premiere of Criminal Minds had a great performance. It managed a 4.1 demo, it's best in years, but that was shockingly third in the time period. As I said before, it's a great week for network TV! At 10pm, the transplanted CSI performed ok. It managed to easily beat NBC's Law & Order: SVU but was down big from its Thursday debut last year and lost out to Revenge in the demo. Still, it's unlikely to drop as much as Revenge which might mean it will win the viewer and demo total this year regularly thanks to its lower pressure timeslot.

Finally, NBC had some more problems in a troublesome premiere week but the news was not all bad at 8pm where Up All Night did ok in a very tough timeslot. A 2.4 demo rating is leaps and bounds better than anything NBC put in the time period last year. Clearly a fair number of people came back after last week's sampling of the premiere. If it were to hold here, that would be a success story for NBC. The news was terrible at 8:30pm though where Free Agents crashed and burned to a very low 1.3 demo. Will this be the first cancellation as I predicted? At 9pm, the season premiere of Harry's Law got crushed in the demo. The other three networks had over a 4 demo (with ABC over a 6) and Harry's managed a meager 1.2. The viewer total wasn't horrible but this old skewing show just skewed older which isn't good news. Did NBC really expect it to find a footing in this slot? At 10pm, Law & Order: SVU suffered perhaps due to the lead-in or perhaps due to the casting change and it stumbled to a third place finish in viewers and the demo, showing its age. If this can't hold up, NBC will have lost one of its few reliable shows. While other networks are seeing great results this week in various areas, it has been a disaster for the fourth place peacock.