It was college football on Saturday and CBS was victorious with the featured match between the Alabama Crimson Tide besting the LSU Tigers. Each half hour was #1 for The Tiffany Network. At 8P, the game pulled in 10.43 million viewers; at 830P it increased to 11.83 million as LSU threatened but fumbled at the goal line. At 9P viewership increased to 12.51 million as Alabama began to pull away. Viewers saw it. Fans knew it. At 930P, the game came off its peak at 10.41 million viewed the game; and at 10P, viewership jumped back up to 12.08 million and finished at 1030P with 12.01 million.
On NBC, while all of the other networks were running football, they decided to begin the evening with a ‘Saturday Night Live’ rerun. And as expected, at 8P, it drew 2.55 million viewers. At 830P fell a bit to 2.53 million. Then at 9P, the ‘Miss Universe’ pageant drew 2.92 milion and at 930P, viewership increased to 3.27 million. Then a 10P and at 1030P, while the winner was being decided upon, the viewership jumped up to 4.77 million viewers, good for #2 in the time slot and #2 for the evening for The Peacock Network. Hats off to the suits at 30 Rock for pulling in a direction that was completely opposite of everyone else. It worked. It boosted NBC to #2 for the evening.
ABC decided to telecast the ACC, Conference featuring the #2 team in the nation, Florida State against Wake Forest. Beginning at 8P, the game pulled in 2.7 million; at 830P it began to fall with 2.66 million. At 9P, it jumped up a bit to 2.82 milion and at 930P the game became well out of hand and viewership dropped to 2.53 million viewers. At 10P it was #4 with 2.57 million; at 1030P it finished with 2.76 million. But for the Alphabet Network, this game was over a long time before that and only loyal fans of Florida State and Wake were viewing by this time.
FOX brought the nation Big 12 Football featuring Texas against West Virginia. Texas finally won in overtime, its first overtime in history, and has resurrected a season many felt would be an end of an era a few weeks back. But this game did not capture the imagination of the nation as at 8P it could only draw 2.51 million viewers, the lowest on broadcast. At 830P, it drew 2.3 million; at 9P only 2.09 million tuned in; at 930P as the game became exciting, 2.64 million were viewing; while at 10P 2.99 million were watching. Then at 1030P, when the game was the most exciting, it propelled The Animal Network of Broadcast to #3 in the time slot with 3.22 million viewers. Yet the Longhorn’s victory could not compete against the SEC on CBS nor the beautiful women on NBC.
For the record, CBS was #1 with a superb 11.55 million viewers. NBC finished #2 with 3.35 million. ABC was third with 2.67 million viewers on average for the evenings. Finally, in last place was FOX, with an average of 2.62 million viewers.
ACROSS THE POND: ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ brought in 10.3 million viewers on Saturday evening at 630P, good for 43.1% share of the audience as it dominates for BBC One Saturday evenings. At 8P, ‘Atlantis dipped slightly from their norm with 4.35 million viewers (18%) while at 915P, ‘The Royal British Legion Festival of Rememberance’ at the Royal Albert Hall brought in 5.32 million viewers, bringing in 24.8% of the audience.
ITV’s once high-flying and top rated program, ‘The X Factor’ is no longer #1. It’s 8.22 million (34.5%) did pick up 570,000 more viewers than last week, but it has lost its shine in spite of the uplift it received with this weekend’s Big Band Week. On ITV+1, it pulled in an additional 254,000 viewers. Next, ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ brought in 3.69 million (16.3%) while ‘The Chase: Celebrity Special’ brought in 3.23 million (13.3%) at 7P.
BBC Two showed a repeat of the documentary ‘The Irresistible Rise of Boris Johnson’ at 730P and drew 1.16 million (4.8%). At 830P, ‘Dad’s Army’ increased the audience to 1.86 million (7.7%) while at 9P, the documentary ‘Hello Quo’ was viewed by 1.1 million (4.93%).
Channel 4 presented the movie ‘Predator’ at 9P and drew 910,000 viewers (4.2%).
Channel 5’s rerun of ‘Most Shocking Talent Show Moments’ was viewed by 1.03 million (6.55%) at 935P.
BBC Three presented the ‘England vs Argentina’ Rugby Union match at Twickenham pulled in 513,000 (2.12%) at 730P. At 830P, the movie Disney Pixar’s ‘Cars’ was viewed by 415,000 viewers (1.82%).
No matter where you were on Saturday evening, people were…
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