Just like the ALCS in Game #2, the visiting team at Fenway pulled out a win after trailing. The St. Louis Cardinals behind the pitching of Michael Wacha and a fascinating bullpen, brought not only the Cardinals to victory but also FOX television network as the game pulled in an average of 13.43 million viewers.
But CBS was giving it a run for its money as it led off at 8P with “The Big Bang Theory” which had 16.98 million viewers watching, good enough for the #1 spot of the evening and nearly 6 million ahead of the opening innings of the World Series game on FOX. New program, “The Millers’ at 830P finished with a respectable 10.74 million against the battle in Boston but fell 1.2 million behind it. At 9P, Robin Williams’ new comedy, ‘The Crazy Ones’ in 9P time slot drew with 8.69 million, 40,000 behind ABC’s ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ but fell 4 million behind the Red Sox vs Cardinals game. At 930, ‘Two and a Half Men’ finished with 8.53 million, some 5 million behind FOX. While at 10P, the battle of the evening between CBS’ ‘Elementary’ won the time slot and was up from last week’s all-time low but down 18% compared to this time slot last year with 8.720 million (vs last year’s 10.16 million) took on the ABC challenge, ‘Scandal’, which was up 50% vs the comparable time last season. In the first half hour, ‘Elementary’ led ‘Scandal’ by 370,000 viewers but at 1030P, it fell behind by 480,000. This is where the shift occurred. Baseball and ABC put some tarnish on the top trophy of Thursday evening for The Tiffany Network.
As for ABC, it keeps pushing. And again on this Thursday, it was banging for respect in every hour except the lead off time slot where ‘Once Upon A Time in Wonderland’ may not be so wonderful. It could only draw 4.38 million at 8P, about half the amount that would be needed to give CBS and FOX a battle on this evening. It finished some 15% behind ‘Last Resort’ which was in this time slot last year. At 8P, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ knocked off CBS’ ‘The Crazy One’ with 8.73 million, up 40,000 over last year. At 9P, ‘Scandal’, finishing behind ‘Elementary’ showed everyone it was not just a surprise thing last week as it battled CBS with 8.62 million (it drew 6.31 million last year on this night). It was at 1030P when ‘Scandal’ began to show its power. Perhaps we are looking at a changing scene on American television at 10P on Thursdays. For years this time was owned by NBC on ‘Must See TV’ night. Then came CBS with its powerful lineup. Now, after switching ‘Elementary’ to Thursdays and ABC putting in ‘Scandal’ at the same time, it is a horse race. The Alphabet Network’s affiliates are looking for an increase on their 11P newscasts.
NBC was…well, NBC….Not Big in Challenging anyone. The Peacock Network decided to send up their top reality program, ‘The Voice’ in a rerun at 8P, expecting it to power through against the competition. Nope. That didn’t work. The rerun only drew 5.26 million people to watch something all over again. At 9P, ‘Sean Saves The World’ is a lie. He didn’t. He crawled in with 3.96 million, down more than a million from a rerun lead in and down the most for the comparable evening last year by 47.62% in the A18-49 demo, one which is coveted by NBC as its only salvation to mediocrity. ‘Michael J. Fox Show’, so full of hope at the beginning of the year, dropped further at 930P with only 3.76 million watching, down 38.64% using that NBC demo metric. It didn’t really give ‘Parenthood’ much of a chance as it could only draw 3.95 million at 10P, even with its performance last season. On Thursday, it was Not Big on Challenging anyone.
The CW, with the ‘Vampire Diaries’ at 8P drew 2.63 million (down 8%) and at 9P ‘Reign’ could only muster 1.83 million viewers against all of the competition of the evening, down 14.29% from last year’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ episode. Their evening was like a slide as at 8P they drew 2.56 million; at 830P drew 2.44 million; at 9P drew 1.9 million and finally at 930P drew only 1.78 million. This is not a way a network likes to see its programming perform during any given evening. Vampires nearing Halloween may not be as big a draw as the suits at The CW would suspect.
On cable Thursday in primetime, the #1 network was the NFL Network with its Thursday Night Football game in Tampa with the Carolina Panthers defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers while 4,602 million viewers tuned in. The History Channel drew 2.677 million, mainly watch ‘Pawn Stars’ while the other top cable network, TBS finished with 2.083 million who were watching ‘The Big Bang Theory’ reruns.
In late night, ‘Leno’ on NBC was #1 with 2.4/7; ‘Jimmy Kimmel’ on ABC #2 with 2.3/6; and CBS’ ‘David Letterman’ last with a rerun pulling in 2.2/6. Later, ‘Nightline’ on ABC at 1230A, averaged 1.4/5 while over on NBC, ‘Jimmy Fallon’ was #2 with 1.3/5 and CBS’ ‘Craig Ferguson’ with a rerun was 1.1/4 for #3 in this time slot. At 130A, NBC, unchallenged drew 0.8/3 with ‘Carson Daly’.
For the record, FOX finished #1 with the ‘World Series Game #2’ with 12.43 million viewers and a 7.8 rating with a 13 share of audience, up 2.4 million vs last season on this day. CBS was #2 with 10.287 million viewers and a 6.4/10, down 2.5 million from last year on this day; ABC #3 with 7.170 million and a 4.9/8, only 100,000 above last year’s numbers on this day; The NFL Network finished #4 with 4.602 million viwers. NBC was nearly off the map at #5 with 4.363 million and a 2.9/5 and believe it or not, that was a 220,000 over last year on this evening; Univision #6 with 3.4 million viewers and a 1.7/3; The History Channel finished #7 with 2.677 million viewers; The CW #8 with 2.171 million viewers and a 1.4/2 (down 140,000 from last year); TBS was #9 with 2.083 million viwers while Telemundo finished #10 with 1.1 million and a 0.7/1.
ACROSS THE POND: ‘Educating Yorkshire’ on Channel 4 was #1 for the evening with 2.62 million viewers (12.4%) at 9P. It was up 150,000 from last week. George Clarke’s ‘Amazing Spaces’ brought in 1.98 milion (9%) at 8P. On ITV at 830P, ‘Britain’s Secret Treasures’ finished with 2.24 million viewers (10.4%) while at 9P, ‘Breathless’ dropped to 2.13 million. Over on BBC Two, ‘Nigellissima’ had 1.29 million viewers (6.1%) at 730P. then ‘Trust Me, I’m A Doctor’ pushed up the audience to 2.42 million (11%) at 8P. At 9P, ‘No Sex Please, I’m Japanese’ dropped to 1.78 million viewers. BBC One had ‘Truckers’ which pulled in 2.31 million viewers at 9P. Channel 5’s, ‘Benidorm ER’ was viewed by 975,000 (4.4%) at 8P. At 9P, ‘Countdown To Murder’ pushed the network’s viewership up to 1.27 million. ‘Person Of Interest’ premiered on Channel 5 at 10P with 926,000 viewers. Over on ITV2, ‘Celebrity Juice’ was viewed by 1.01 million (6.1%) at 10P. Give the evening to Channel 4 with ‘Educating Yorkshire’ finishing #1 for this Thursday with BBC Two’s ‘Trust Me, I’m A Doctor’ #2. BBC One’s ‘Truckers finished #3. ITV’s ‘Britain’s Secret Treasures’ finished #4. ‘Breathless’ finished #5.
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