[TV] Ratings Report: Touch Premieres Strong, Retains Idol Audience
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 01.26.2012
FOX picks up the nightly win...
Keifer Sutherland's new TV series Touch got off to a very strong start Wednesday night. The show, which aired a preview episode ahead of its March 19th official debut, drew in 12 million viewers and a 7.0 rating, well ahead of the debuts of both of this season's new FOX dramas Alcatraz and Terra Nova. While Touch had the advantage of an American Idol lead-in for ratings strength, it also had the strongest-ever retention of Idol's ratings for a drama at 61%. By comparison, Fringe's first post-Idol airing had a 51% retention and the 2009 Glee preview had 45%.
The strong ratings by Touch and the down-but-still-good showing of Idol gave FOX a comfortable win for the night with a 9.0 rating and 15.7 million average viewers. CBS was in second place with a 7.6 and 11.9 million viewers. ABC came in third with repeats (2.9, 4.4 million), BCS was fourth with a 2.7 and 4 million while The CW was last as usual with a 0.7 and 1.1 million viewers. The hourley ratings are below:
8 PM:
FOX: "American Idol" (19.5 million viewers, 11.1/17 households)
CBS: "Criminal Minds" rerun (7.9 million, 5.3/8)
ABC: "The Middle" rerun (5.25 million, 3.4/5)/"Suburgatory" rerun (4.2 million, 2.7/4)
NBC: "Whitney" (4.5 million, 3.0/5)/"Are You There, Chelsea?" (3.9 million, 2.6/4)
The CW: "One Tree Hill" (1.5 million, 1.0/2)
