Fast National ratings for Thursday, March 21, 2013.
FOX and ABC finished in a virtual tie among young adult viewers on Thursday night, though FOX had more viewers with “American Idol” and “Glee” than ABC did with “Wife Swap,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal.”
For the night, FOX averaged a 2.4 rating among adults 18-49 and 8.77 million viewers overall. ABC also averaged a 2.4, with 7.56 million. On its first night of covering March Madness, CBS was third (1.6, 4.7 million), followed by NBC (1.0, 3.1 million) and the CW (0.9, 2.16 million).
8 p.m. — The “Idol” results show easily won the hour (2.8, 11.65 million), followed by the first hour of CBS’ college basketball coverage (2.1, 6.1 million) and the return of “Wife Swap” on ABC (1.7, 5 million). For NBC, “Community” was on the low end (1.1, 3.03 million), but still better than the new “1600 Penn” that aired at 8:30 (0.9, 2.54 million). Both NBC comedies actually finished behind the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries” (1.2, 2.55 million).
9 p.m. — ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was the hour’s big winner (2.9, 9.11 million), followed by a new “Glee” on FOX (2.0, 5.89 million), more hoops on CBS (1.6, 4.71 million), a repeat “The Office” and another new “1600 Penn” on NBC (0.9, 2.3 million) and “Beauty and the Beast” on the CW (0.7, 1.77 million).
10 p.m. — “Scandal” won the hour for ABC (2.7, 8.57 million), though this was a week where it finished a bit behind “Grey’s,” rather than slightly ahead. CBS’ basketball coverage was second (1.2, 3.3 million), followed by a “Law & Order: SVU” repeat on NBC (1.1, 4.22 million).