Preliminary Ratings: Thursday 01/22/15

FOX topped the Thursday night ratings, thanks to a solid outing by AMERICAN IDOL and a good start to the new series, BACKSTROM.


IDOL was the night's #1 program in the Adults 18-49 demographic, grabbing a 2.7 rating. That is up one tenth of a ratings point, in the demo, and an increase of 100,000 viewers. This continues the now rare upward trend of IDOL, in the third week.

Following AMERICAN IDOL was the new series BACKSTROM, drawing 8.0 million viewers and a 2.0 demo rating. that is a retention rate of 76%, in total viewers and 74% in the demo. Not a horrible start to the series, but not great either.

Over on NBC, to freshman comedies called it a series, as BAD JUDGE and A TO Z aired their series finales. The low rated sitcoms finished 4th in their time slot and was on par with ratings in recent airings. Come February, NBC will go all drama on Thursday nights, including the new night of THE BALCKLIST, in the same 9 .m. hour.

CBS was a solid second place on the night, despite an hour of encore episodes of THE BIG BANG THEORY. The positives from the night was the INCREASE of the demo ratings, of MOM out of BIG BANG, and the time period winning performance of ELEMENTARY, out of the second BIG BANG episode. ELEMENTARY jumped 15%, in the demo, over last week's number.

ABC was a complete non-factor as THE TASTE barely edges THE VAMPIRE DIARIES for 4th place, and another repeat of HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER does nothing to keep viewers.

Preliminary L+SD Network Averages:

ABC - 2.8 million viewers, 0.7 rating in A18-49

CBS - 9.5 million viewers, 2.0 rating in A18-49

CW - 1.4 million viewers, 0.5 rating in A18-49

FOX - 9.3 million viewers, 2.4 rating in A18-49

NBC - 3.9 million viewers, 1.1 rating in A18-49

Time	Net	Program	Viewers*	A18-49	+/-
8:00	ABC	The Taste	3.00	0.8
10:00	ABC	How To Get Away With Murder [R]	2.30	0.5	-23%
8:00	CBS	The Big Bang Theory [R]	11.60	2.4
8:30	CBS	Mom	11.20	2.5	-3%
9:00	CBS	Two And A Half Men	9.60	2.3	-14%
9:30	CBS	The Big Bang Theory [R]	8.30	1.9	-14%
10:00	CBS	Elementary	8.20	1.5	-1%
8:00	CW	The Vampire Diaries	1.70	0.7
9:00	CW	Reign	1.30	0.4	-24%
8:00	FOX	American Idol	10.54	2.7
9:00	FOX	Backstrom (SP)	8.00	2.0	-24%
8:00	NBC	The Biggest Loser	4.60	1.2
9:00	NBC	Bad Judge (SF)	3.00	0.8	-35%
9:30	NBC	A to Z (SF)	2.10	0.6	-30%
10:00	NBC	Parrenthood	4.40	1.3	110%

* - in millions