Fast National ratings for Monday, January 16, 2012.
The network TV business more or less shut down on Tuesday night for President Obama’s State of the Union address, but an “American Idol” repeat helped carry FOX to a ratings win for the night, while NBC drew the biggest audience for the President’s speech.
For the night, FOX averaged a 2.6 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 7.4 million viewers overall. NBC (1.9, 6.5 million) was second in the demo, while CBS (1.6, 8.4 million) the most-watched network overall. ABC (1.4, 5.4 million) was fourth, while the CW benefited slightly from airing original episodes opposite reruns and the President.
8 p.m. — Because Sunday night’s NFC Championship Game pushed all but three minutes of a special “Idol” episode out of primetime, FOX decided to rerun that episode in place of a “Glee” repeat, and got a 3.3 demo rating and 9.5 million viewers overall. An abbreviated “Biggest Loser” was second in the demo for NBC (2.1, 6.3 million), while an “NCIS” repeat on CBS (2.0, 12.4 million) was easily the hour’s most-watched show. “Last Man Standing” repeats on ABC (1.4, 5.4 million) were fourth, followed by the CW’s “90210” (0.7, 1.4 million), up a few hundred thousand viewers from last week, most of them young.
9 p.m. — NBC’s State of the Union led the hour with a 2.0 demo rating and 7.2 million viewers, compared to a 1.7 and 5.2 million viewers for FOX, a 1.5 and 7.4 million for CBS (for the full 90 minutes of the speech and rebuttal, NBC averaged about 6000 more viewers overall), and a 1.5 and 6.1 million viewers for ABC. The CW’s “Remodeled” (0.4, 952,000 viewers) was up a 10th of a ratings point and 250,000 viewers from last week’s dismal premiere.
10 p.m. — NBC was the only network to stick with political coverage for the full hour, and was rewarded with a 1.5 demo rating and 6.1 million viewers overall. CBS followed the address with a “Big Bang Theory” repeat, and combined for the hour to get a 1.2 and 5.4 million viewers, followed by ABC’s combo of the address and a “Modern Family” repeat (1.2, 4.8 million).
All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change.