Nellie Andreeva

The two-hour series premiere of Fox’s Alcatraz did solid business last night, drawing a 3.3/8 among adults 18-49 and 10 million total viewers. It was up 10% in the demo from the fast national for the two-hour series debut of Terra Nova on the night in the fall and is tied with ABC’s Revenge as the second highest-rated new drama in 18-49 this season behind ABC’s Once Upon A Time. (A bit of trivia: both Alcatraz and Once Upon A Time hail from Lost alums.) This is Fox’s highest-rated drama series premiere in 3 years among adults 18-49 (since Lie To Me on Jan. 21, 2009) and in 2 years in total viewers (since Human Target on Jan. 17, 2010). While Alcatraz edged Terra Nova, there should be an asterisk to the comparison as Alcatraz didn’t have to go against male audience magnet Monday Night Football, while Terra Nova‘s debut aired against one of MNF‘s biggest games. (On the flip side, Terra Nova had a bigger marketing campaign.) With ESPN’s football competition on Monday easing after the end of MNF and 2 weeks of Bowl games, most networks posted ratings gains.

CBS’ lineup returned from a week of repeats with big episode for How I Met Your Mother, its 150th. The veteran comedy (4.4/11, 10.1 million) got a ratings bump, up 13% in 18-49 from 2 weeks ago. The gains carried over to 2 Broke Girls (4.5/11, 11.3 million) and Two And A  Half Men (4.6/10, 12.9 million), both up a tenth. Mike & Molly (3.8/9, 11.2 million) was even, while Hawaii Five-0 (2.8/7, 10.5 million) was down a tenth. CBS (3.8/9, 11.1 million) won the night in 18-49 and total viewers.

NBC’s Betty White’s 90th Birthday special drew a 2.7/7 in 18-49 and 13.9 million viewers from 8-9:30 PM. Excluding Olympics, this was NBC’s largest audience in the time period in 4 years. Following the special, a preview of White’s new reality series, Betty White’s Off Their Rocker (2.6/6, 12.2 million), drew NBC’s biggest viewership in the 9:30-10 PM half-hour in 28 months. Betty White was good to Brian Williams too, boosting Rock Center (1.3/3, 5.6) to a demo series high, up 83% in 18-49 and 86% in total viewers from its most recent airing.

ABC’s The Bachelor (2.4/6) was up 9% from last week, while Castle (2.3/6) was flat. The CW’s Gossip Girl returned from a long hiatus last night with 1.3 million viewers, 0.6/2 in adults 18-49 and 0.8/2 in adults 18-34. It was up 14% in 18-34 from its last original on Dec. 6 and flat in 18-49 (for a series low) and total viewers.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.

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