Preliminary Ratings: Wednesday 02/26/2014

Let's kick things off with the lone series premiere of the night, ABC's MIXOLOGY. The new comedy brought in 5.2 million viewers and a 1.8 rating in Adults 18-49. It retained just 61% of the audience MODERN FAMILY delivered to it.

 How does this compare to SUPER FUN NIGHT? Well, we have to go back to November 20th before we find an episode of SFN do slightly better numbers. As far as retention rate, the last time SFN lead out of an original episode of MODERN FAMILY was February 5th and the freshman comedy could only keep 47% of the audience. Going back to that last "decent" night of SUPER FAN NIGHT, on Novembner 20, 2013, the retention rate was 54%. So, right now, MIXOLOGY is doing better than SUPER FAN NIGHT did. But I am not sure if it will be good enough to keet the comedy beyond this May.

The season premiere of SURVIVOR, with a double dose of episodes, did relatively well on the night. The ratings are on par with the numbers the series pulled in with the Fall 2013 premiere. It was nice to see a SURVIVOR game with a completely all new set of castaways. it has been a while since we last saw that and it was totally refreshing.

NBC's winning streak finally ended as AMERICAN IDOL led FOX to wins in both viewers and demographic ratings. Having the Olympics out of the way did not generate more young viewers for AI as the A18-49 ratings are the same as last week.

With CRIMINAL MINDS out of the time slot, NBC's LAW & ORDER: SVU posted decent numbers. Up 10% in the A18-49 ratings and about 1.5 million more viewers than the last original episode of the series. But it was CHICAGO PD that saw the biggest gains of the night. Compared to the February 5th episode, CHICAGO PD gained two million viewers and jumped 29% in the demo ratings. That is with CRIMINAL MINDS as it competition at 10 p.m. NBC may have finally turned the corner on a track back near the top of the ratings.
 

Preliminary Network Averages:

ABC - 5.9 million viewers, 1.8 rating in Adults 18-49

CBS - 9.7 million viewers, 2.5 rating in Adults 18-49

CW - 2.0 million viewers, 0.7 rating in Adults 18-49

FOX - 10.6 million viewers, 2.6 rating in Adults 18-49

NBC - 6.8 million viewers, 1.8 rating in Adults 18-49

Time	Net	Program	Viewers*	A18-49	+/-
8:00	ABC	The Middle	7.10	1.8
8:30	ABC	Suburgatory	5.30	1.5	-25%
9:00	ABC	Modern Family	8.60	3.1	62%
9:30	ABC	Mixology	5.20	1.8	-39%
10:00	ABC	Nashville	4.70	1.2	-10%
8:00	CBS	Survivor	9.80	2.5
10:00	CBS	Criminal Minds	9.50	2.3	-3%
8:00	CW	Arrow	2.50	0.9
9:00	CW	The Tomorrow People	1.50	0.5	-39%
8:00	FOX	American Idol	10.60	2.6
8:00	NBC	Revolution	4.60	1.3
9:00	NBC	Law & Order: SVU	7.70	2.0	68%
10:00	NBC	Chicago PD	8.00	2.2	4%

* - in millions