UPDATE: RATINGS RAT RACE: NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ Tops Premiere In Second Week
UPDATE, 1:58 PM: Looks like NBC’s Hannibal has some teeth. Final numbers for last night have the network’s new drama rising up over last week’s premiere in both ratings and viewers. Hannibal rose from 1.6/5 on April 4 to 1.7/5 on Thursday. Its total viewership rose to 4.376 million from the 4.360 who watched last week. Now the premiere of Hannibal was soft to begin with but up is still up. Maybe it was the promoted April 10 repeat of the pilot after Law & Order: SVU encore. Maybe it was the fact that last night’s Hannibal was up against all repeats in its 10 PM slot as opposed to originals like it was last week. Either way Hannibal is just the second new drama on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox after The Following to improve its ratings in its second week over its premiere. It is the only drama to grow in viewers in the second week. The result is not Voice numbers but it’s not bad news for the struggling NBC. In fact, with the exception of sports and live news events, last night’s Hannibal gave NBC its best result in the time slot in over a year. The last time it hit such a number was on March 1, 2012 with the premiere of the short-lived procedural Awake.
PREVIOUSLY, 9:14 AM: On American Idol (3.1/10) it is now down to five. The one-hour results show on Thursday saw another finalist sent home, a bit of network cross promo with The Following’s Kevin Bacon in the crowd as well as performances from former Idol winners Kelly Clarkson and Scott McCreery. Last night’s show was up 11% from last week’s fast nationals and 7% above April 4′s final numbers. The highest rated show of the night, Idol actually had its most watched Thursday in five weeks with 12.7 million viewers. Back after three weeks, last night’s new Glee (2.4/6) took on the topic of guns in Thursday’s episode. Four months after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Fox show began with a disclaimer of “This episode of Glee addresses the topic of school violence. Viewer discretion is advised.” Helped by strong promotion by Fox throughout the week, the singing series was up 20% from its last original. Fox won the night among Adults 18-49 and total viewers with 9.772 million watching.
Related: ‘Glee’ School Shooting Episode Stokes Debate; Anger By Some Newtown Families
It was puppet night on Community (1.2/4) at 8 PM on NBC on Thursday as the struggling comedy had a special felt episode. Maybe puppets are the way to go for Community because the series was up 20% from a series low last week to its best rating since March 7. If puppets work for Community, repeats seem to work for Hannibal (1.6/5) Wednesday saw an encore of the Silence Of The Lambs prequel’s April 4 pilot. Last night saw the second week of the 10:01 PM new drama shrug off the usual decline to stay even with its premiere last week. Having said that, it should be noted that Hannibal was up against repeats this week as opposed to originals on April 4. At 8:30 PM, Parks And Recreation (1.5/5) was even with its April 4 episode. NBC’s highest rated show of the night, The Office (1.9/5) saw a slight 6% rise from last week’s series low. Thursday saw the season finale of Go On (1.1/3) at 9:31 PM. After a solid debut on September 11 last year, Matthew Perry’s return to NBC has had a roller coaster of a ratings ride. Lacking a Voice lead-in that helped that last few weeks when it was on Tuesday, the freshman comedy’s finale stayed flat with its Thursday debut on April 4.
The only original on ABC last night was Wife Swap (1.4/5). The fourth week of the latest season of the reality series was up 8% among Adults 18-49 and up 15% in viewers from its April 4 shows. That’s the second best numbers the show has had this season after its premiere. After Wife Swap the network ran repeats of Grey’s Anatomy (1.3/3) and Scandal (0.9/3) Both CBS and The CW were all repeats on Thursday – though the former’s Big Bang Theory (2.9/10) was still the second most watched show of the night with 11.15 million tuning in.
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