“Off the Map” Ratings Fail to Impress, “Law & Order: SVU” Wins

Although ABC’s new “Off the Map” performed better than previous timeslot occupant “The Whole Truth” in its debut Wednesday night, the show’s ratings are hardly worthy of celebration.

The new ABC series garnered a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating with 7.52 million viewers in its premiere at 10PM Wednesday night. Second behind NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” (8.39 million, 2.5 rating), “Map” defeated CBS’ 10PM timeslot combination of “Live to Dance” and “The Defenders” (6.52 million, 1.5 rating for the hour).

Compared to the 10-10:30PM segment, the latter half hour lost 0.3 in the demo and about 900,000 viewers. Such a downturn is disappointing for a premiere and a sign that viewers were not impressed.

Heated debate is ongoing about how the show’s unexpected lead-in might have impacted ratings. Originally slated to receive assistance from “Cougar Town,” which has recently been averaging adults 18-49 ratings in the high 2s, “Map” instead received nine minutes of a “Modern Family” repeat.

In order to air the Barack Obama-led Tuscon Memorial special, ABC bumped the new 9PM edition of “Family” to roughly 9:20PM. Not wanting to sacrifice “Off the Map”‘s premiere to run “Cougar Town” in its entirety, ABC instead filled the 9:51PM-10PM gap with footage from a previous edition of “Modern Family.”

For the 9:30PM-10PM half hour, ABC averaged a 3.7 with 10.14 million. The current fast national data cannot determine how the rating fluctuated once the repeat began airing, so it is presently unclear whether or not “Off the Map” benefited from the “Cougar Town” pre-emption. Certainly, “Cougar Town” could not have provided a 3.7 lead-in, but if the 3.7 is actually the result of the timeslot average being dragged down by a dearth of interest in the “Modern Family” repeat (with, for instance, a 2.2 from 9:51-10PM), the lead-in might not have been as spectacular as some are claiming.

At the end of the day, it is likely that the lead-in was in the ballpark of what “Cougar Town” would have provided, so while one might be able to make the holistic argument that the Barack Obama speech hurt ABC for the evening (indications are that “Modern Family”‘s final numbers will be down from the season average), he probably cannot blame lead-in woes for the disappointing “Off the Map” bow.