Nellie Andreeva

Nice Week 3 bump for ABC’s midseason comedy series Happy Endings (2.1/5 in adults 18-49). After falling 30% in its move from 9:30 PM to 10 PM last Wednesday, the new comedy bounced back, up 17% in the demo from last week. And that despite the fact that its lead-in, Cougar Town (2.1/5), was down 9% from last week as it followed a repeat Modern Family vs. an original last Wednesday. Happy Ending also held 100% of its Cougar Town lead-in vs. 75% last week. The only other original offering on ABC was freshman Better With You (1.5/4) at 8:30 PM, which was down a tenth from last week when it aired behind a new The Middle.

Fox (5.8/16 in 18-49, 18.2 million) once again dominated the night with American Idol (6.9/19), which was up a tenth in the demo from last Wednesday’s fast national number (the reality juggernaut is always adjusted up in the finals, so vs. that it was down 3%). Idol was also on par with the comparable telecast last season. New Fox comedy Breaking In (2.6/6) was flat with its fast national rating last week and up 4% vs. the final.

CBS’ Survivor: Redemption Island (3.0/9), even with its fast national demo result and down 3% from the final, was followed by reruns of Criminal Minds and Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. NBC aired an NBC News Royal Wedding special (1.2/3) and a rerun of the promising two-hour premiere of The Voice (2.1/5), which got good additional sampling going into Week 2. And, airing against the final half-hour of Idol, it fared much better in the ratings than virtually all NBC dramas do in first-run.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.