Preliminary Ratings: Wednesday 01/27/2016

The day before the February sweeps begin, CBS and FOX slit leadership, while ABC and NBC gave us encores before a month of original programming. FOX edged out CBS for wins in all three key demographics, while CBS averaged a million more viewers than FOX.

AMERICAN IDOL was the #1 show of the night, drawing the most viewers (9.6 million) and the top A18-49 rating (2.5). That is up from the previous Wednesday's ratings. HELL'S KITCHEN improved its number in its new time slot. The 4.3 million viewers is 19% better than last Friday's total viewership and the A18-49 demo rose a tenth of a point. Compared to Last Wednesday's SECOND CHANCE episodes, in the 9 PM slot, HK improved the A18-49 demo by 40% and viewership by 15%.

For CBS, it won the 9 & 10 PM time slots, but the ratings were flat from last week's numbers despite less competition. Both comedies saw losses in the A18-49 demographic, by one and two tenths of a point, respectively.

With original episodes in both hours, The CW was flat, week-to-week.

Preliminary L+SD Network Averages:

	Total viewers	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
ABC	4.30 million	0.7	1.2	1.5
CBS	8.00 million	0.9	1.6	2.4
CW	2.30 million	0.8	0.9	1.1
FOX	7.00 million	1.2	1.9	2.6
NBC	4.90 million	0.6	0.9	1.2

Time	Net	Program	Viewers*	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
8:00	ABC	The Middle [R]	5.20	0.8	1.3	1.7
8:30	ABC	The Goldbergs [R]	4.20	0.7	1.2	1.6
9:00	ABC	Modern Family [R]	5.10	0.8	1.4	1.9
9:30	ABC	Black-ish [R]	4.20	0.7	1.2	1.6
10:00	ABC	American Crime	3.60	0.6	0.9	1.2
8:00	CBS	2 Broke Girls	6.90	0.9	1.6	2.4
8:30	CBS	Mike & Molly	7.10	0.8	1.6	2.4
9:00	CBS	Criminal Minds	9.40	1.1	2.0	2.8
10:00	CBS	Code Black	7.50	0.8	1.3	1.9
8:00	CW	Arrow	2.70	0.9	1.1	1.2
9:00	CW	Supernatural	1.90	0.6	0.7	0.9
8:00	FOX	American Idol	9.60	1.5	2.5	3.4
9:00	FOX	Hell's Kitchen	4.30	0.9	1.4	1.8
8:00	NBC	Mysteries of Laura [R]	5.30	0.5	0.8	1.1
9:00	NBC	Law & Order: SVU [R]	4.60	0.6	1.0	1,3
10:00	NBC	Chicago PD [R]	4.80	0.6	0.9	1.3

* - in millions