Basic math: Tom Selleck on CBS plus Friday equals #1 in total viewers. For the fourth straight evening this week, The Tiffany Network dominated with more viewers than any other network. Beginning with ‘Undercover Boss’ (9.15 million viewers) through a revitalized ‘Hawaii Five-O’ (8.89 million) with ‘Blue Bloods’ (10.23 million) grabbing all of the momentum and continuing the push to 11P local news, it was no contest. From 9P to 11P, CBS programming increased every and each half hour in viewers. Once again, ‘Blue Bloods’ starring Tom Selleck, was the #1 program for the evening. ‘Hawaii Five-O’ had an exceptional episode filled with twists that were well camoflagued. Who would have thought it was the attorney? ‘Blue Bloods’ presented as good a police procedural as has been seen in recent years. Taking viewers through the entire process for what they think they see to what actually happened, in not one but two incidents, was fascinating. The Sunday dinner scene was extraordinary. That is why this program continues to remain on top.
TBS with the St. Louis Cardinals winning the National League pennant for the 19th time over the Los Angeles Dodgers and advancing to the World Series, brought the cable network to a solid #2 position overall but #1 on cable. With a stunning 9-0 victory, St. Louis is in the World Series for the second time within the past four years. Pitching again proved to be the key to victory. The Dodgers pitching great, Clayton Kershaw, saw what could be another Cy Young season come crashing down as the Cardinals tore him apart. It was Cardinals young pitcher, Michael Wacha, who gave up only 7 hits and in his two starts in the NLCS and won the series MVP. Perhaps Albert Brooks said it best in a tweet following the game: @AlbertBrooks “For Sale: Great seats to the Dodgers World Series.”
ABC began the night with ‘Last Man Standing’ (6.14 million viewers) followed by ‘The Neighbors’ (4.35 million). Its top program for the evening at 9P was ‘Shark Tank’ which finished with 6.5 million. ’20/20′ at 10P dropped down to 4.65 million and finished a poor fourth, nearly 6 million behind ‘Blue Bloods’.
NBC began the evening with a rerun of ‘The Michael J. Fox Show’ drawing only 3.03 million followed by another rerun of ‘Sean Saves The World’ (dropping down to 2.53 million). It was up to ‘Dateline’ with 5.61 million viewers to pick up the entire Peacock Network to finish the evening.
FOX did not finish last, because of The CW and Telemundo. But the Animal Network tried to do exactly that. Beginning with ‘MasterChef Jr’ which pulled 3.85 million, it finished a surprising #4 in the 8P time period but then settled toward the bottom with a rerun of ‘Sleepy Hollow’, drawing only 2.51 million viewers. They need baseball to revive their prime time programming.
The CW began at 8P with a rerun of ‘Reign’ which could only muster 1.18 million viewers. The at 9P, ‘America’s Next Top Model’ drew 1.03 million to finish a rather horrible night. One sort of wishes the return of ‘Nikita’.
For the record, CBS finished #1 with an average of 9.42 million viewers while TBS finished second. ABC was #3, some 4 million viewers behind CBS, with 5.462 million. NBC drew 4.665 million while FOX gained 3.179 million. The CW finished with 1.107 million viewers for the evening.
One thing we have learned about Fridays, especially at 10P, few people are…
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