'Rob' Soars For CBS While 'The Firm' Stumbles For NBC

NBC found out it had a flop on its hands when it comes to "The Firm." But CBS may have picked up a new hit comedy, that is if the audience for "Rob" can hold in the coming weeks.

The Peacock pushed out three episodes of "The Firm" in its opening week, averaging a very modest 3.6 rating/6 share average, according to Fast National overnight ratings from The Nielsen Co. In the grand scheme of things, that would make it NBC's No. 5 show tied with "The Office," if compared with ratings from the end of last year. However, that's not the whole story.

The first two episodes which aired on Sunday averaged a 4.0/6. By Thursday, its regular timeslot, "The Firm" dropped to a 2.8/5. That was a 30 percent drop from its premiere, and is 13 percent behind "Prime Suspect," which averaged a 3.2/5 in the timeslot over 11 episodes. The third "Firm" episode finished just outside of the top 10 least-watched show on the Big Four networks, but will likely be there next week unless NBC can somehow improve its timeslot.

"The Firm" can probably blame its lead-in a little bit on Thursdays. NBC moved "Up All Night" to the 9:30 slot in place of "Whitney," which created a big drop in that show's audience. On Wednesdays, "Up All Night" averaged a 3.4/6, but dropped to a 2.6/4 on Thursdays, a fall of 24 percent.

"Whitney," however, seems to have benefitted from a moved timeslot. The show averaged a 2.9/4 on late Thursdays, but improved to a 4.0/6 on Wednesdays, in "Up All Night's" old timeslot. However, it's not clear if it received a boost from its new lead-out show, "Are You There, Chelsea," which earned a 4.2/6 on its premiere night.

The new CBS comedy "Rob" was not very well liked by the critics, but viewers stuck around at least for the first episode. The comedy starring Rob Schneider and Cheech Marin, premiered to a 7.9/12 on Thursday, scoring the top ratings for the 8:30 p.m. timeslot for any of the networks. "Rules of Engagement" has averaged a 6.6/11 in that timeslot so far this year while the now-cancelled "How to be a Gentleman" averaged a 5.2/9.

If "Rob" were to maintain that audience (which is not expected), it would be CBS' No. 7 show, as of ratings up to Dec. 31, tied with "Mike & Molly," and would be in the Top 10 overall. However, before "Rob" fans get too excited, let's see what happens in the coming weeks.

"Modern Family" was ABC's top-rated show of the week with a 7.4/11, while CBS was led by "NCIS" (12.6/19), Fox by "Bones" (5.3/8), NBC by "Harry's Law" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (5.7/9), and The CW by "Vampire Diaries" (1.8/3).

CBS boosted its audience over this time last year by 17 percent. However, all the other networks dropped year-over-year. Fox is down 29 percent followed by NBC at 20 percent and ABC at 9 percent.

Overall this season, CBS leads with a 7.7/12, followed by ABC with a 5.9/9, Fox with a 4.4/7, NBC with a 3.4/5 and The CW with a 1.2/2.

Top Networks, Week of Jan. 8 -- [Audience Loyalty Index rating]

1. (1)	CBS	8.3/13	[65.6]
2. (2)	ABC	4.8/7	[65.3]
3. (3)	NBC	3.6/6	[63.8]
4. (4)	Fox	2.9/4	[55.3]
5. (5)	The CW	1.2/2	[68.9]

Top Network Shows, Week of Jan. 8 -- [ALI]

1. (1)	NCIS (CBS)	12.6/19	[95.0]
2. (2)	NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)	10.3/16	[93.0]
3. (-)	Big Bang Theory (CBS)	9.4/15	[93.6]
4. (-)	Person of Interest (CBS)	8.8/13	[88.1]
5. (-)	The Mentalist (CBS)	8.3/14	[93.5]
6. (-)	The Good Wife (CBS)	8.1/12	[80.9]
7. (-)	Rob (CBS)	7.9/12	[100.0]
8. (9)	Blue Bloods (CBS)	7.4/13	[91.6]
9. (3)	Modern Family (ABC)	7.4/11	[92.1]
10. (6)	Unforgettable (CBS)	7.2/12	[84.4]

Top New Shows, Week of Jan. 8 -- [ALI]

1. (-)	Person of Interest (CBS)	8.8/13	[88.1]
2. (-)	Rob (CBS)	7.9/12	[100.0]
3. (1)	Unforgettable (CBS)	7.2/12	[84.4]
4. (-)	Once Upon a Time (ABC)	5.9/9	[84.8]
5. (3)	A Gifted Man (CBS)	5.6/9	[89.0]
6. (4)	Suburgatory (ABC)	5.4/8	[87.2]
7. (5)	Revenge (ABC)	5.2/8	[80.8]
8. (6)	Last Man Standing (ABC)	4.8/7	[74.0]
9. (-)	The Firm (NBC)	4.2/6	[94.0]
9. (-)	Are You There, Chelsea (NBC)	4.2/6	[100.0]

Least-Watched Big Four Network Shows, Week of Jan. 8 -- [ALI]

1.	Fringe (Fox)	1.8/3	[92.3]
2.	Mobbed (Fox)	2.0/3	[79.8]
3.	Chuck (NBC)	2.1/4	[88.3]
4.	Kitchen Nightmares (Fox)	2.4/4	[90.7]
5.	Cleveland Show (Fox)	2.5/4	[77.5]
6.	Parks & Recreation (NBC)	2.6/4	[89.6]
6.	Up All Night (NBC)	2.6/4	[100.0]
8.	Pan Am (ABC)	2.7/4	[58.1]
8.	The Simpsons (Fox)	2.7/4	[74.2]
10.	American Dad (Fox)	2.8/4	[79.3]

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that include both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisions turned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.

Data collected from The Nielsen Co., as distributed by Zap2it. GenreNexus tracks non-news, non-event programming, and figures for this story reflect airing of new episodes only. For more information on the Audience Loyalty Index, click here.