Overnights
Solid premiere for 'Sit Down, Shut Up'
By Abigail Azote
Apr 20, 2009 - 12:21:04 PM

Fox’s new animated series "Sit Down, Shut Up" was off to a decent start last night, pulling a 2.3 average overnight rating among 18-49s, according to Nielsen overnights.

That’s 77 percent of the lead-in audience from "The Simpsons" which averaged a 3.0 rating. "Sit Down" also improved on what "King of the Hill" did last week in the same 8:30 timeslot, by 15 percent.

Whether "Sit Down" is a winner in the making is still too soon to tell. Many critics have been lukewarm in their reception of the animated show, including Media Life’s Tom Conroy. Conroy wrote last week that the comedy falls flat.

Meanwhile, NBC’s telecast of "Miss USA" averaged a 1.4 from 7-9 pm, growing its audience by 70 percent from the first to the second hour. Compared to last year’s pageant which averaged a 1.7, the show is down 18 percent. Last year’s telecast aired on Friday at 9 p.m.

ABC won the night among viewers 18-49 with a 3.1 average overnight rating and 8 share, propelled by the "Desperate Housewives" episode featuring the death of Nicolette Sheridan’s character, Edie.

Fox was second with a 2.5/7, NBC third with a 2.3/6, CBS fourth with a 2.0/5, Univision fifth with a 0.9/2 and CW sixth with a 0.3/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Twenty-eight percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 7 p.m., ABC led with a 2.2 18-49 overnight rating for "America’s Funniest Home Videos," followed by CBS with a 1.8 for "60 Minutes," Fox with a 1.4 for an "American Dad" repeat (1.1) and an original "King of the Hill" (1.6), NBC with a 1.0 for the first hour of "Miss USA," Univision with a 0.5 for "Hora Pico" and CW with a 0.2 for a "Jericho" repeat.

At 8, CBS took the lead with a 3.0 for "Amazing Race 14" followed by Fox with a 2.7 for "The Simpsons" (3.0) and the premiere of "Sit Down" (2.3), ABC with a 2.2 for a repeat of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," NBC with a 1.7 for the final hour of "Miss USA," Univision with a 0.9 for the first hour of "Nuestra Belleza Latina" and CW with a 0.2 for the movie "Cutthroat Island."

At 9, ABC regained the lead with a 4.7 for "Housewives" followed by Fox with a 3.4 for "Family Guy" (3.8) and "American Dad" (3.0), NBC with a 3.0 for "Celebrity Apprentice," CBS with a 1.5 for the first hour of the TV movie "The Courageous Heart of Irene Sendler," Univision with a 1.1 for the final hour of "Latina" and CW with a 0.3 for the conclusion of "Island."

At 10 p.m., ABC and NBC tied at first with a 3.3 for "Brothers and Sisters" and "Apprentice," respectively. CBS was third with a 1.6 for the conclusion of "Courageous" and Univision fourth with a 0.9 for "Zona de Guerra."

Among households, CBS won the night with a 6.6 average overnight rating and 11 share, followed by ABC with 6.0/10, NBC with 4.2/7, Fox with 3.0/, Univision with 1.3/4 and CW with 0.6/1.