RATINGS RAT RACE: 'Breaking In' Soft In Return, 'Raising Hope' Steady In Move

There was good news for Fox’s freshman New Girl and sophomore Raising Hope last night when Fox introduced a two-hour Tuesday comedy block. Both comedies showed strength as self-starters. Opening the night at 8 PM, Raising Hope (2.1/6) was even with its most recent original in the cushy post-New Girl slot. Speaking of New Girl (3.0/8), it also held steady from two weeks ago when it followed the winter finale of Glee — despite a lead-in last night that was half of that. In its Tuesday debut, I Hate My Teenage Daughter managed a 1.6/4 at 8:30 PM, down 20% from its last original two-and-a-half months ago, which aired behind The X Factor on Wednesday. Teenage Daughter was the lowest-rated piece in Fox’s new block but still edged ABC’s Cougar Town (1.5/4) in the time slot. Also making a return to the schedule was canceled and resurrected Fox comedy Breaking In, which opened its second season with a modest 1.7/4 at 9:30 PM. That was half of the rating for show’s series premiere last April, when it aired behind American Idol. Compared with the first-season finale, which aired in the same Tuesday 9:30 PM slot, Breaking In was up 31%. But its lead-in last night, New Girl, was also up 36% from the lead-in for the Breaking In season finale, a new Raising Hope. 

Outside of Fox, it was a quiet night for the broadcast networks as most of the action was on the cable news nets covering Super Tuesday. NBC was the only broadcaster to do a news special on the Republican primaries. Because the special aired at 10 PM in the East and 8 PM in the West, the network cautions not to rely on fast-nationals, which are not time-zone adjusted. In the metered markets, the Decision 2012 special averaged a 2.1/4 household rating, while The Biggest Loser logged a 4.1/8, up 8% from last week. At ABC, reruns bookended Cougar Town (1.5/4), down 6% from last week’s series low, and The River (1.5/4), flat with last week’s series low. CBS aired all reruns. The CW’s 90210 (0.7/2) was steady in its return to originals after a four-week break. Ringer (0.5/1) was up a tenth.