Ratings Review: GREY'S ANATOMY (Season Nine)

Like most veteran series, GREY'S ANATOMY is not the show it used to be. Gone are the days of 25-30 million viewers and double digit ratings in Adults 18-49. But, within the demographic ratings, GREY'S is still a solid performer.

This season, 2012-13, will be the season the GREY'S ANATOMY was no longer the top drama for ABC. Towards the end of the season, it's lead out program, SCANDAL, began topping the medical drama in both viewers and demo ratings. I would suspect that 2013-14 will be more growth for SCANDAl and continued declines for GREY'S.

For the season, GREY'S ANATOMY averaged just 8.3 million viewers and a 2.8 rating in Adults 18-49. Only four repeat episodes were used in the show's 27 airings. Over the summer, GREY'S ANATOMY was not even used because of the weakness of airing encore episodes. ABC has a tough road ahead. It is a 4th place network, trying to find something new to lead it into the next generation of programming. And, until that happened, GREY'S will be there to keep the time slot warm.

GREY'S ANATOMY (Thursdays at 9 p.m., on ABC)

Date	Viewers*	A18-49	+/-
09/27/12	11.73	4.4
10/04/12	10.84	3.8	-8%
10/11/12	Preempted
10/18/12	9.69	3.4
10/25/12	8.76	3.0	-10%
11/01/12	Preempted
11/08/12	9.26	3.3
11/15/12	8.84	3.2	-5%
11/22/12	Preempted
11/29/12	8.95	3.1
12/06/12	9.10	3.0	2%
12/13/12	8.17	2.9	-10%
12/20/12	Preempted
12/27/12	3.23	0.8		R
01/03/13	Preempted
01/10/13	Preempted
01/17/13	8.80	3.0
01/24/13	9.01	3.0	2%
01/31/13	8.93	2.8	-1%
02/07/13	8.91	3.1	0%
02/14/13	8.57	2.8	-4%
02/21/13	8.75	3.1	2%
02/28/13	Preempted
03/07/13	3.65	1.1		R
03/14/13	8.20	2.6	125%
03/21/13	9.39	3.0	15%
03/28/13	9.02	2.9	-4%
04/04/13	8.58	2.8	-5%
04/11/13	4.51	1.3	-47%	R
04/18/13	4.02	1.1	-11%	R
04/25/13	8.24	2.7	105%
05/02/13	8.87	3.0	8%
05/09/13	8.97	3.1	1%
05/16/13	8.99	3.1	0%

* - in millions