NBC's PARKS & REC Earns Highest Rating Since 2011

At 8 p.m. ET, "30 Rock" (1.3/4 in 18-49, 3.5 million viewers overall) finished within 0.2 of a point of last week's season-high 18-49 rating, despite last night's competition from the season debut of Fox's "American Idol."

* At 8:30 p.m. ET, "Parks and Recreation" (1.9/5 in 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall) moved to the 8:30 half-hour by equaling the show's highest 18-49 rating since November 17, 2011, last achieved at 9:31 p.m. ET on October 4. In total viewers, it's the biggest overall audience for "Parks" in the past year (since January 19, 2012, 4.3 million). Versus its prior original at 9:31 on December 6, last night's "Parks" was up 21 percent. Despite competition from last night's "Idol" premiere, "Parks" scored NBC's highest rating with comedy in the time period since March 15, 2012.

* "Parks" built on its 18-49 lead-in from "30 Rock" by 46 percent, the biggest build on lead-in for any original, regularly scheduled 8:30 comedy on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX so far this season.

* From 9-9:31 p.m. ET, "The Office" (2.1/5 in 18-49, 4.2 million viewers overall) finished within a tenth of a rating point of last week's 2.2, which was the show's top rating since November 8, despite last night's competition from the "Idol" debut. "The Office" is #2 in the slot among ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX in in men 18-34. Note that last season, "The Office" added an average 50 percent to these next-day "live plus same day" ratings when Nielsen reported "live plus seven day" results.

* From 9:31-10:01 p.m. ET, "1600 Penn" averaged a 1.2/3 in 18-49 and 3.0 million viewers overall.

* From 10:01-11 p.m. ET, "Rock Center with BrIan Williams" (1.2/3 in 18-49, 4.4 million viewers overall) reported its highest adult 18-49, adult 25-54 (1.6 rating) and total-viewer results since November 1. In 18-49, "Rock Center" was up 9 percent versus last week (1.2 vs. 1.1) and up 50 percent versus two weeks ago (1.2 vs. 0.8).

In Late-Night Metered Markets Thursday night:

* In Nielsen's 56 metered markets, household results were: "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," 2.6/7; CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," 2.5/6; and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 2.7/7.

* In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, adult 18-49 Wednesday results were: "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," 0.8/4; "Late Show," 0.7/3; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 1.1/5.

* From 12:35-1:05 a.m. ET Wednesday night, ABC's "Nightline" averaged a 1.8/6 in metered-market households and a 0.6/4 in 18-49 in the Local People Meters.

* From 12:35-1:35 a.m. ET, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (1.3/4 in metered-market households) tied CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (1.3/4). In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Late Night" (0.5/3 in 18-49) topped "Late Late Show" (0.4/3).

* At 1:35 a.m., "Last Call with Carson Daly" averaged a 0.8/3 in metered-market households with an encore and a 0.3/2 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with local people meters.

NOTE: All ratings are "live plus same day" from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise indicated.

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