The battle at 8P on Monday may have told the full story of the narrow victory NBC earned on Monday evening. Yet the battle at 10P between these two networks may have been the case study on this battle between The Peacock Networks and The Alphabet Network. At 8P, NBC’s ‘The Voice’ jumped out of the box with 12.46 million viewers for the lead but in the second half hour at 830P, although increasing to 12.91 million, it actually fell behind ABC’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ which drew 13.22 million viewers. At 9P, ABC’s ‘Dancing’ increased viewership with 13.73, but so did NBC’s ‘Voice’ with 13.43 million. The came 930P. ‘The Voice’ jumped ahead, narrowly, with 13.43 million while ‘Dancing’ finished the half hour with 13.32 million. During the Vikings/Giants game, on WatchESPN logged 167,000 unique viewers, 12.2 million live minutes and an average minute audience of 61,000, up 82% compared to a year ago.
At 10P, the battle between the two networks continued with NBC’s rookie show, ‘The Blacklist’ holding #1 with 11.35 million viewers while ABC’s ‘Castle’ was close behind at 11.08 milion. In the final half hour at 1030P, the engaged duo of Rick & Kate pulled ahead giving ABC the final half hour nod with 10.2 million viewers while ‘The Blacklist’ fell to 9.78 million. As a result, ‘Castle’ won the #1 spot in this time period with 10.64 million while ‘The Blacklist’ finished just 7 0,000 behind with 10.57 million in the overnights. The NBC show will surely win the final tally when the LIVE+7 figures come out next week. But for now, ABC affiliates were left with the lead going into their local news at 11P. For the record, it doesn’t much matter to the locals who finished number one because of DVD viewership. Nor do the local advertisers.
To say this evening was a tremendous battle is an understatement. Besides the two reality shows leading off the evening for both, it was the dramas at the end that really put two well written shows up against each other. When Rick said, “This may be my favorite case” just before the title break at the beginning of ‘Castle’, game on. Meanwhile, James Spader was absolutely brilliant in this episode featuring not only assisting in the capture of the primary arc suspect but also in bringing his fellow actress nearer his delightful circle of manipulators. When the refrigerator door was opened, it was only half the story.
For ESPN with ‘Monday Night Football’ featuring one of the worst football games in history, featuring the New York Giants vs Minnesota Vikings, ratings were astounding as some 13.243 million viewers gathered for a 9.7 rating. In Minneapolis, he game delivered a 12.3 rating on ESPN and a 38.0 rating on WCCO, the CBS affiliate, for a combined 50.3 rating in the market. In New York, the game delivered a 10.1 rating on ESPN and a 5.6 rating on WPIX, The CW affiliate, for a combined 15.7 rating in the market. In other markets, New Orleans (16.6 rating), Las Vegas (14.2), Tampa-St. Pete (14.1), Kansas City (13.8), Richmond, VA (13.6), Norfolk (13.0) Washington, D.C. (13.0), Sacramento (12.7), San Diego (12.6) and Seattle-Tacoma (11.9).
CBS meanwhile cobbled together its comedy block to be a distant third as ‘How I Met Your Mother’ drew 7.87 milion viewers at 8P; ‘2 Broke Girls’ had 8.05 million at 830P; ‘The Big Bang Theory’ in a rerun at 9P drew 8.49 million and ‘Mom’ dropped the basket with only 7.79 milion at 930P. Then total disaster: ‘Hostages’ finished 5.98 million at 10P and dropped even further at 1030P with only 5.57 milion viewers.
Meanwhile, over at FOX, ‘Bones’ in a great episode that finally saw Seely and Temperance get married after all of these years, drew a respectable 7.40 million at 8P and increased the audience at 830P to 7.57 million as Cindi Lauper was brilliant with her singing at the wedding. It was one of the best episodes in the history of the program and FOX may have missed the perfect ending to the series with this storyline. Absolutely everyone was happy and smiling at the end. At 9P, the Animal Network featured a rerun of ‘Sleepy Hollow’ which was no match with only 3.50 million viewers at 9P and 3.24 million at 930P. Note: if you didn’t get a chance to see ‘Bones’ on Monday, go on demand and see it. Brennen really is Brennen and Booth is absolutely true Booth.
USA Network featuring ‘WWE’ back to back to back from 8P-11P with 3.825 million viewers average viewers.
VH1 had 2 of the top seven shows on the evening. ‘Basketaball Wives 5’ drew 2.233 million at 8P which led into ‘Crazysexycool: TLC Story’ posted 4.485 million viewers at 9P, the #2 cable program for the night in prime time.
As for The CW, ‘Heart of Dixie’ at 8P drew 1.34 million and it increased to 1.53 million at 830P. At 9P, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ continued the climb up o 1.63 million viewers and pushed ahead at 930P with 1.71 million viewers.
For the record, NBC finished a close #1 with 12.54 million in the fast overnight ratings for a 7.6 rating and 12 share while ABC was #2 with 12.29 million, only 250,000 viewers behind, but with an 8.0 rating and 12 share. ESPN projected as #3 and the top cable network for the evening with 11.954 million viewers. CBS was #4 with 7.29 million and a 4.8/7; FOX #5 drew 5.43 million and a 3.3/5; USA Network projected at #6 finished with 3.825 million viewers; Univision finished #7 with 3.4 million viewers and a 1.7/3; VH1 finished #8 with 3.351 million viewers while The CW #9 finished with 1.55 million viewers and 1.1/2 while Telemundo finished #10 with 1.2 million viewers and a 0.7 rating and a 1 share. NOTE: The CW ratings may not be accurate as they had preemptions in both New York (Giants football) and Chicago (Bulls pre-season basketball). CBS had a preemption in Minneapolis/St. Paul (Vikings NFL game).
In late night, NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ finished on top with a 3.1/8 while ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ was #2 with 2.2/6. CBS’ ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ had an off night with guest Alec Baldwin as the guest and finished with 1.9/5. ABC’s ‘Nightline’ averaged 1.4/5 while ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ finished with 1.5/6 ahead of CBS’ ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ (1.1/4). NBC’s ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ averaged 0.9/4.
One thing was for sure, on this Monday evening, people were constantly…
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