TV Ratings: '30 Rock' Rises With Live Episode, Falls Short of 2010 Outing

NBC

American Idol earned its same fast affiliate rating, a 3.9 among adults 18-49, as last Thursday's results show, making it likely to grow when final numbers come in and giving Fox the strongest showing in the demo for the night regardless. Touch was down another 10 percent though, hitting a low of 1.9 with adults 18-49 and giving Fox an average 2.9 rating with the demo and 10.5 million viewers for the night.

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CBS' Big Bang Theory returned from encores Thursday night, nabbing a 4.0 rating among adults 18-49 and driving the network to second place 2.6 adults rating for the night and a dominant 11.6 million viewers. Still, it was a season low for Big Bang, with big competition in Idol and the night's cable broadcasts of the NFL draft. Rules of Engagement pulled a 2.5 rating in the demo, while Person of Interest and The Mentalist rounding out the night with respective 2.4 and 2.1 ratings with 18-49-ers.

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Missing continues to drop on ABC. The Ashley Judd drama pulled just a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49, before a mostly steady Grey's Anatomy earned a 3.2 rating in the demo and giving it the best performance of the 9 p.m. hour. Scandal was up 5 percent to a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49, though several minutes of Grey's runover may bring that down. ABC averaged 2.2 with adults 18-49 and 7.7 million viewers.

NBC started the night out strong, with a rising Community bringing in a 1.4 rating with 18-49-ers. 30 Rock also grew for the third week in a row, posting a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49 and bringing in 3.5 million viewers with the its live episode. It was a six-week high in the timeslot, but it's a far cry from the 3.1 rating among adults 18-49 that 30 Rock brought NBC during the last live episode in fall 2010 -- a much more ratings-friendly time on the TV calendar.

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Elsewhere on NBC, The Office was down to a series low of a 2.1 with adults 18-49 and Parks & Recreation brought a 1.6 in the demo. Awake, down 11 percent, earned just a 0.8. Altogether, NBC averaged a 1.4 rating for the night and 3.1 million viewers.

The Vampire Diaries held onto last week's 1.0 rating among adults 18-49, improving among younger demos, before The Secret Circle earned a 0.5 in the demo.