Thursday Night's Ratings for NBC Prime

NBC PRIMETIME RATINGS RESULTS FOR SEPT. 17, 2009

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. September 18, 2009 The following are NBC primetime ratings results for September 17.

From 8-8:30 p.m. ET, NBC's "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" averaged a 2.0/7 in adults 18-49 and 5.7 million viewers overall. "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" matched NBC's highest non-sports 18-49 rating in the slot since April 30 and attracted NBC's biggest non-sports overall audience in the time period since April. 9.

From 8:30-9 p.m. ET, the second season premiere of "Parks and Recreation" delivered a 2.1/6 in adults 18-49 and 5.0 million viewers overall, improving on its 18-49 lead-in from "Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday" by 5 percent in adults 18-49 and 18 percent in adults 18-34 (2.0 vs. 1.7).

From 9-9:30 p.m. ET, the sixth season premiere of "The Office" averaged a 4.0/11 in adults 18-49 and 8.1 million viewers overall, making "The Office" the #1 telecast of the night in 18-49. In the time period, "The Office" was #1 among the major networks in every key demographic.

From 9:30-10 p.m. ET, the series premiere of "Community" delivered a 3.7/10 in adults 18-49 and 7.7 million viewers overall, retaining 93 percent of its 18-49 lead-in from "The Office." That's NBC's highest retention to date of an original "Office" lead-in in this time period. "Community" scored NBC's highest non-sports 18-49 rating and biggest non-sports overall audience in the time period since April 2, the night of the "ER" finale. "Community" won the time period in adults, men and women 18-34; adults, men and women 18-49; and adults and women 25-54.

From 10-11 p.m. ET, "The Jay Leno Show" averaged a 2.7 rating, 8 share in adults 18-49, a 3.3/9 in adults 25-54 and 8.5 million viewers overall.

"The Jay Leno Show" ranked #1 among the major networks in the time period in adults 18-49, #1 in adults 25-54 (the key demographic for late local news) and #2 in total viewers. Last night's time-period competition included CBS's "Mentalist" encore and ABC's "Private Practice" rebroadcasgt.

"The Jay Leno Show" delivered NBC's highest non-sports 18-49 rating in the time period since April 9 and biggest non-sports overall audience since April 16.

Versus Jay Leno's 2008-09 average at 11:35 p.m. ET on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," last night's telecast was up substantially in adults 18-49 (2.7 vs. 1.4), adults 25-54 (3.3 vs. 1.8) and total viewers (8.5 million vs. 5.1 million). Versus NBC's Monday-through-Friday 10-11 p.m. ET non-sports average over the prior 52 weeks, last night's telecast was also up substantially in adults 18-49 (2.7 vs. 2.2), adults 25-54 (3.3 vs. 2.7) and total viewers (8.5 million vs. 6.9 million).

NBC is #1 among the major networks for the night in adults, men and women 18-34 and men 18-49 (tie).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for Wednesday night are: Fox, 3.0/9; NBC, 2.9/8; CBS, 2.5/7; CW, 1.4.4; and ABC, 1.3/4. In overall total viewers, September 17 preliminary results are: CBS, 9.7 million; Fox, 9.0 million; NBC, 7.3 million; ABC, 4.4 million; and CW, 3.3 million.

Note that all national ratings are "live plus same day" unless otherwise indicated.