Valentine’s Day socks Thursday shows

Viewers were clearly more interested in exchanging Valentines than in watching television last night.

With TV usage by adults 18-49 off by 6 percent on Valentine’s Day compared to the previous week, a number of shows tumbled to season or series lows.

The night’s lone premiere, ABC’s new thriller “Zero Hour,” was hit particularly hard. It managed just a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating at 8 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights, becoming the lowest-rated in-season drama premiere ever for the network.

It was off 41 percent from the 2.2 that “Last Resort” pulled in its premiere in the same timeslot last September, when HUT levels were higher.

With the lackluster lead-in, “Grey’s Anatomy” dipped to a season-low 2.7 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

But ABC was hardly the only network to suffer Valentine’s Day-related dips. Fox’s “American Idol” fell to a season-low 3.6 at 8 p.m. Lead-out “Glee” dipped to a near-series-low 1.7 at 9 p.m.

CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” still dominated with a 5.4, but that was off 13 percent from last week.

NBC’s “Community,” which drew a higher-than-expected rating for last week’s debut, fell to a series-low 1.1 at 8 p.m. Lead-out “Parks and Recreation” fell 25 percent from last week’s season high to a 1.5.

No shows grew week over week and only two maintained last week’s rating. One was “Elementary,” the new CBS drama, which averaged a 2.2 at 10 p.m.

The other was ABC’s hot second-year drama “Scandal,” which not only matched last week’s season high but also bettered the rating for lead-in “Grey’s” for the first time, drawing a 2.8.

CBS was first for the night among 18-49s with a 3.3 average overnight rating and a 10 share. Fox was second at 2.7/8, ABC third at 2.3/7, NBC and Univision tied for fourth at 1.5/4, CW sixth at 0.8/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.5/1.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback, which includes shows replayed before 3 a.m. the night before. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Forty-seven percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.

At 8 p.m. CBS led with a 4.6 for “Bang” (5.4) and “Two and a Half Men” (3.8), followed by Fox with a 3.6 for “Idol.” Univision was third with a 1.6 for “Por Ella Soy Eva.” ABC and NBC tied for fourth at 1.3, ABC for “Zero Hour” and NBC for “Community” (1.1) and “Parks and Recreation” (1.5), while the CW was sixth with a 1.0 for “The Vampire Diaries” and Telemundo seventh with a 0.4 for “Pasion Prohibida.”

CBS was first again at 9 p.m. with a 3.0 for “Person of Interest,” while ABC jumped to second with a 2.7 for “Grey’s.” NBC was third with a 2.0 for “The Office,” Fox fourth with a 1.7 for “Glee,” Univision fifth with a 1.6 for “Amores Verdaderos,” Telemundo sixth with a 0.6 for “La Patrona” and CW seventh with a 0.5 for “Beauty and the Beast.”

ABC moved to first at 10 p.m. with a 2.8 for “Scandal,” with CBS second with a 2.2 for “Elementary.” Univision was third with a 1.3 for “Amor Bravio,” NBC fourth with a 1.0 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and Telemundo fifth with a 0.5 for “El Rostro de la Venganza.”

CBS also finished first for the night among households with an 8.4 average overnight rating and a 14 share. Fox was second at 5.3/8, ABC third at 5.0/8, NBC fourth at 2.2/4, Univision fifth at 1.8/3, CW sixth at 1.2/2 and Telemundo seventh at 0.7/1.

Tags: abc, american idol, cbs, cw, dvr, fox, Grey, nbc, overnight ratings, overnights, premiere, scandal, season high, the big bang theory, thursday overnights, time, univision, zero hour