or


[09/19/11 - 12:05 AM]
The Futon's Ratings Survival Guide: "2 Broke Girls" (CBS)
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

Please note: As a courtesy, please do not reproduce these comments to newsgroups, forums or other online places. Links only please.

Welcome to The Futon's Ratings Survival Guide, our annual feature which takes each new fall series on the broadcast networks and tells you the numbers it will need to survive for a second season. In general, a show's success isn't so much where it lands on the weekly ratings chart but rather how it performs in two key categories:

1. How much of its lead-in audience it retains. If a show averages 10 million viewers that's a good thing. But if the show that airs before it is averaging 30 million viewers, that's not a good thing. Why? Because 20 of those 30 million viewers decided to turn off that particular channel when the next show came on.

2. How it performs year-to-year in its time period. A new show is usually in its time period because the network thinks it can do better than it did in that slot last year. In other words, do worse than the show that was canceled after three weeks last fall then you too probably are not long for this world.

As you'll see, together these measurements paint a clear picture on how a particular show is doing. So without further ado, let's begin.

2 BROKE GIRLS (CBS)
(Mondays at 8:30/7:30c)

With "Rules of Engagement" leapfrogging from Mondays to Thursdays to now Saturdays and the quick exit of "Mad Love" last season, CBS will lean on newcomer "2 Broke Girls" to bridge the audience between "How I Met Your Mother" and "Two and a Half Men" in the Monday, 8:30/7:30c slot. It's no easy task either: the Jenna Elfman-led "Accidentally on Purpose" got the hook despite a near 87% retention rate while the aforementioned "Mad Love" held into 85% of "How I Met Your Mother's" audience.

Here's how CBS has fared on Monday nights the past two seasons:*

mondays in 2009-2011timeviewers
(retention)
adults 18-49
(retention)
The Big Bang Theory: Season 39:30 PM14.13
(95.02%)
5.22
(106.53%)
Two and a Half Men: Season 79:00 PM14.87
(174.53%)
4.90
(154.09%)
Two and a Half Men: Season 89:00 PM14.20
(162.66%)
4.46
(143.87%)
CSI: Miami: Season 810:00 PM12.50
(90.12%)
3.62
(70.98%)
How I Met Your Mother: Season 58:00 PM8.88
(N/A)
3.53
(N/A)
Mike & Molly: Season 19:30 PM11.18
(89.37%)
3.40
(88.77%)
How I Met Your Mother: Season 68:00 PM8.64
(N/A)
3.36
(N/A)
Accidentally on Purpose8:30 PM8.49
(92.28%)
3.15
(86.78%)
Rules of Engagement: Season 58:30 PM8.72
(94.99%)
3.11
(86.87%)
Rules of Engagement: Season 48:30 PM8.20
(103.93%)
3.07
(100.66%)
Hawaii Five-0: Season 110:00 PM10.46
(96.49%)
2.83
(86.28%)
Mad Love8:30 PM6.47
(90.36%)
2.25
(84.91%)

* Viewers are in millions, adults 18-49 is the percentage of said viewers in the demographic; all are based on fast national data, using only first-run episodes in its regular time period.

COMING TOMORROW: FOX's "New Girl" & CBS's "Unforgettable."





  [september 2011]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
    


· 2 BROKE GIRLS (CBS)
· FUTON'S RATINGS SURVIVAL GUIDES (TFC)





most recent ratings | view all posts
[06/03/26 - 07:00 AM]
Fans Power UFL on ESPN to Significant Viewership Growth Across 10-Week Regular Season
ABC alone accounted for eight of the top 10 most-watched games.

[06/03/26 - 06:00 AM]
TNT Sports Caps Its Most Watched NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs with Its Most Watched Conference Final Ever
The record-setting series helped propel TNT Sports' overall coverage of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs to an average of 1.4 million viewers across TNT, TBS, truTV and HBO Max, up 50% from 2025 through the Conference Final.

[06/02/26 - 04:06 PM]
NBC and Peacock Deliver Most-Watched Conference Finals Game Since 2016 with 15.9 Million Viewers for Spurs-Thunder Game 7 on Saturday Night
Across 28 playoff games, NBC Sports' presentation of the 2026 NBA Playoffs averaged 7.2 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, up 72% versus comparable coverage last season.

[06/02/26 - 02:36 PM]
ESPN's WCWS Viewership Success Continues
Texas Tech-UCLA averaged 2.0 million viewers, with a peak of 2.6 million.

[06/02/26 - 02:13 PM]
FOX IndyCar Continues Ratings Growth with Strong Detroit Performance
Through eight races, IndyCar on FOX is averaging 2,241,000 viewers, up +12% from 2025 (2,007,000).

[06/02/26 - 02:00 PM]
FOX MLB's "Baseball Night in America" Delivers Most-Watched Baseball Telecast of the Week
2,322,000 viewers tuned-in to FOX for a two-game slate highlighted by the Cubs' 6-1 victory over the Cardinals in most of the country.

[06/02/26 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10: Week of May 25 - "The Boroughs" Makes Itself at Home at No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
Plus: "Nemesis" stole away with the No. 2 spot on the list, commanding 5.9 million views.

[06/01/26 - 11:04 AM]
ESPN Scored Most-Watched NCAA Women's College World Series Opening Thursday on Record
Arkansas-Nebraska averaged 1.4 million viewers, with a peak of 1.6 million.

[06/01/26 - 08:27 AM]
ESPN Scores Most-Viewed Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference Final Since 2015, The Latest Viewership Successes Headed Into the Stanley Cup Final
Across four games on ESPN, the series averaged 2.2 million viewers and was up 44% vs. the Western Conference Final last year (Edmonton vs. Dallas) which went five games on ESPN.

[05/29/26 - 03:02 PM]
"20/20" Is Friday's No. 1 Newsmagazine, Leading "Dateline" in Total Viewers for the 5th Consecutive Broadcast Season
"20/20" improved on the previous season in Total Viewers (+5%/+170,000 - 3.672 million vs. 3.502 million).

[05/29/26 - 03:01 PM]
ABC News Is #1 in Total Viewers Sunday Morning and in Late-Night
"Nightline" posted double-digit gains week to week in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49.

[05/28/26 - 03:23 PM]
2026 NBA Eastern Conference Finals Presented by Dunkin' Finishes Strong with Average Audience of 7.4 Million Viewers Across ESPN and ABC
Additionally, Game 4 on ESPN averaged 7.2 million viewers, marking the most-viewed Eastern Conference Finals Game 4 across any network since 2018.

[05/28/26 - 11:00 AM]
CBS Outpaces Competitors with Eight of the Top 25 Series Across All Streaming and Broadcast Originals in Nielsen's All-Series Ranker
CBS has the most top 25 series of any streaming or broadcast competitor and twice as many as its closest broadcast competitor, including six series with 10+ million viewers.

[05/28/26 - 10:31 AM]
FOX Delivers Most-Watched UFL Game Since League Started in 2024
1,593,000 viewers watched as Louisville defeated Dallas 37-23 on Sunday.

[05/28/26 - 10:26 AM]
FOX Scores with 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500
6,635,000 viewers watched Felix Rosenqvist edge David Malukas by 0.0233 seconds with a last-lap pass to win the Indy 500 Sunday on FOX.