‘Modern Family’ won another Wednesday night on an evening where viewership appears to be down across the board. NBC’s new entry in the Law & Order franchise won its slot in both viewers and 18-49.

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Wednesday’s top show was ‘Modern Family’. The show did drop from last week’s 5.0, but no one came close to its 4.5 last night. ‘Cougar Town’ could not maintain the momentum: it registered only a 2.9 (down from 3.3) and lost 4 million of its lead-in audience.

‘Criminal Minds’ came in second overall with 14.41 million viewers (up from last week) and a 3.6 (down from last week’s 4.0).

‘Law & Order: SVU’ experienced a slight dip from last week, scoring a 2.7.

Source: TV Latest

ABC’s “Modern Family” is the No. 1 Scripted TV Show in its Slot for the 8th Time In 9 Telecasts with Adults 18-49, Beating a Replay of “Criminal Minds” by 29%
Marking its Top Repeat Performance in the Half-Hour in Nearly 5 Months, “Modern Family” Marks its Best-Ever Replay When Airing Opposite “Idol”.

“Modern Family” (9:00-9:30 p.m.)
Jumping 38% from its lead-in against the third half-hour of “Idol,” ABC’s repeat “Modern Family” finished as top-rated scripted show at 9:00 p.m. among Adults 18-49 (2.2/6), beating CBS’ replay “Criminal Minds” by 29% (1.7/5) and NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” replay by 83% (1.2/3). “Modern Family” has registered as the No. 1 scripted show in its time period on 8 of its last 9 telecasts (including both repeats and originals).
Among Adults 18-49, “Modern Family” posted its highest-rated repeat performance in the slot since the beginning of December (since 12/2/09), its 2nd-highest-ever replay in the half hour. In fact it was the ABC freshman comedy’s best-ever repeat number when airing head-to-head against “Idol”.

Source: TV by the Numbers

With most of its competition in repeats, Fox’s “Glee” hit a season high last night, dominating what’s become one of the most competitive slots on broadcast.

“Glee” averaged a 3.6 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, its best rating this season and up 13 percent over its season average of 3.2.

The reason for the bump wasn’t hard to gauge. It was the least competitive Wednesday night in months, with ABC’s “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” and NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in reruns and CBS preempting usual timeslot winner “Criminal Minds” for a Grammy nominations special.

CBS was first at 8 p.m. with a 3.8 for “Rudolph,” followed by Fox with a 2.3 for “So You Think You Can Dance.” ABC was third with a 1.9 for a “Modern Family” rerun and a new “The Middle” (2.0), NBC fourth with a 1.8 for “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” Univision fifth with a 1.4 for “El Nombre del Amor” and CW sixth with a 0.4 for a repeat of “Gossip Girl.”

Fox took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 3.6 for “Glee,” while CBS slid to second with a 2.3 for “Grammy Nominations Concert Live!” ABC and NBC tied for third at 2.0, ABC for repeats of “Modern” and “Cougar” and NBC for an “SVU” rerun, with Univision fifth with a 1.7 for “Sortilegio” and CW sixth with a 0.5 for a repeat of “The Vampire Diaries.”

Source: Media life magazine