Two of the most charished television icons of the ’80s matched up against each other in competing comedies on Thursday premiere night and Mork won, assisting CBS to a big victory. With a huge lead in provided by the #1 comedy on television, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ (drawing 18.9 million viewers), Robin Williams’ ‘The Crazy Ones’ won its time period easily by drawing 15.6 million viewers handily beating Michael J. Fox’s ‘The Michael J. Fox Show’ which finished 3rd in its time slot (9P) with only 7.3 miliion followers. CBS completed its sweep by having ‘Two and a Half Men’ (11.54 million) and their lone drama of the evening, ‘Elementary’ (with 10.14 million) crush all competitors.
However, the power of ‘The Crazy Ones’ was more then the masterful job by it leading stars (Robin Williams & Sarah Michele Geller). It was the extraordinary way David E. Kelley creates the atmosphere that the actor’s characters are spot on and the audience falls in ‘like’ with them instantly. Take for instance the character Zach Cropper played by James Wolk. If you ever want to see some of the most hilarious moments in television history, check out Wolk and Williams absolutely destroying Kelly Clarkson in a riff about sexy McDonalds. If you never watch television this year, watch this…on line…on demand…anyway you can. If the role of ‘Mork’ drove the Williams star at the beginning of his career, Wolk’s ‘Cropper’ is destined to do the same. Honestly, he may be the next George Clooney.
As for the other networks, ABC’s ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ was the highest non-CBS rated program for the evening. It drew 9.26 million viewers while it’s ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’ pulled in 5.17 million. FOX’s ‘The X Factor’ had 6.38 million viewers while ‘Glee’ pulled in only 5.17 million. NBC got buried with ‘Parks and Recreation’ drawing 3.3 millionn; ‘The Michael J. Fox Show’ pulled in 7.3 million and ‘Parenthood’ was overwhelmed by CBS’ ‘Elementary’ and drew only 5.17 million viewers.
For the evening, CBS (8.6/14) won premiere Thursday with 14.207 million viewers (400,000 more than last year’s premiere Thursday); ABC (5.3/9) had 7.893 million (1.4 million less than last year); FOX (3.6/6) came in third with 5.773 million (1.9 million less than last year); NBC (3.4/6) 5.258 million (600,000 greater than last year); Univision (1.8/3) drew 3.7 million viewers; Telemundo (0.7/1) 1.2 million and The CW (0.5/1) drew 856,000 with reruns (80,000 more than last year’s premiere Thursday).
All in all, it was a good night for CBS and a good night to be Robin Williams.
Switching channels.
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