All of the stars were aligned. No reruns on this Thursday as each network through out their regularly scheduled programming. When that happens, more times than not, CBS wins each and every hour. This Thursday was an example of why Black Rock controls the eyeballs in American television today. At 8P, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ drew 18.55 million viewers, the largest total of the night for any program airing this evening. It is the top comedy on television. At 830A, ‘The Millers’ drew 12.04 million, easily the biggest new comedy of the season. At 9P, Robin Williams, ‘The Crazy Ones’ won it’s hard-fought half hour with 8.92 million viewers. While many look at this as a drop from one comedy to another, Williams’ vehicle is up against some of the toughest competition of the night and still manages to win its time period in live overnight ratings. At 930P, ‘Two And A Half Men’ power back up, after select viewers rejoin The Tiffany Network, with 9.35 million viewers. And at 10P, based on that upswing and the power of its own, ‘Elementary’ drew 9.53 million again against strong competition from ABC. What can be learned about this night on CBS? The comedy block, with the tremendous lead of ‘Big Bang’ attracts the audience initially; the audience gets comfortable and rather than shift to a more serious medical drama or the balance of the competition they stay with the proven stars in the middle of the CBS night; then a slick, well written and acted ‘who done it’ drama, builds the audience back up and provides a great lead in for local affiliates across the nation. This is why The Tiffany Network continues to gain the most eyeballs. They deliver content that the audience wants. NOTE: It should be noted that the NFL game was simulcast on CBS affiliates in Denver and San Diego. As a result, CBS ratings may inflated and subject to more typical adjustments.
ABC, after its initial hour, is a big factor on this night and chases CBS as strong as any other. At 8P, ‘Once Upon A Time In Wonderland’ is not a factor as it barely cracks 3 million viewers (3.45 million to be exact) but it is the winter finale of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ at 9P that provided the big push to dethrone CBS. This week ‘Grey’s’ attracted 8.5 million, just 450,000 behind Williams’ comedy on CBS. Then at 10P, ‘Scandal’ pushes ‘Elementary’ with 9.33 million, just 200,000 behind ‘Elementary’. The upswing provided by The Alphabet Network is positive and gives local affiliates a boost. Too bad it simply cannot compete at 8P.
The NFL Network on ‘Thursday Night Football’ featuring the ever-present Denver Broncos and Payton Manning (he must get more FaceTime than anyone on the planet during the gridiron season giving us all a primer in what should and must be said without saying nothing new) facing the December Dominators…San Diego Chargers. Phil Rivers’ team upset Manning’s team in Denver by a touchdown, and 8.493 million viewers tuned in.
FOX News Channel averaged 2.102 million viewers in prime time with ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ drawing 2.769 million at 8P.
NBC did on Thursday, what NBC has been doing for nearly a decade…provide terrible programming that few except the suits at 30 Rock personally like better than nearly everyone else in the country. At 8P, ‘The Sing Off’ brought in 4.53 million viewers, good for third place at that time slot. That will be the highlight of the evening for The Peacock Network. At 9P, ‘Sean Saves The World’ drew 3.53 million while at 930P, ‘The Michael J. Fox Show’ was watched by 3.03 million. At 10P, ‘Parenthood’ probably taught their children something but nobody was watching as 3.94 million tuned it. Now even reality can’t save NBC. They learned something last week with ‘live’ musicals as it dominated the evening with ‘The Sound of Music’. Perhaps innovative programming such as that would save this night for the network. Imagine, ‘An Evening On Broadway’ or ‘Off-Broadway’. It would be a boost for the Great White Way and it would boost the ‘class’ factor of a network mired in mediocrity.
FOX had ‘The X Factor’. It drew 4.89 million viewers at 8P. A rerun of ‘Glee’ pulled in 2.47 million.
The CW led off the evening with ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and pulled in 2.41 million viewers, giving NBC a run for their money. But at 9P, ‘Reign’ died with 1.86 million. The Little Network That Could tried.
Deportes Telemundo’s “Fútbol Estelar” broadcast of the anxiously awaited final soccer match between León and América reached a cumulative audience of 4.7 million viewers and 2.7 million (A18-49) on Thursday, at 9PM. As the audience gathered to watch León move closer to its first Mexican title in 21 years by beating defending champion Club America 2-0, the broadcast also averaged 2.8 million total viewers and 1.7 million (A18-49), becoming the best-performing Liga MX match aired by any U.S. television network in 2013, according to Nielsen. Called by internationally acclaimed sportscaster, the match also ranked as the #1 program regardless of language in Los Angeles and San Francisco among (A18-49) and outperformed Univision in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco & Denver in the same demo.
In late night, with the strong CBS lead in, ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ and guest star Julia Roberts drew a massive audience and won the time period with a 2.9/8. NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ tied for second with ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimball Live’ as both had a 2.4/5. At 1235A, both ABC (‘Nightline’) & NBC (‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’) tied with a 1.4/5 while CBS’ ‘Craig Ferguson’ lost the momentum and finished with 1.3/5. at 135A, NBC’s ‘Carson Daly’ had a 0.8/4.
For the record, CBS finished #1 with 11.319 million viewers on average for the evening and a 7.0 rating and 11 share of the audience. This was an increase of some 500,000 viewers over the comparable day last year. Even for those following the A18-49, CBS took the crown with 2.7/8. The NFL Network averaged 8,039,500 million viewers over the prime time period making it #2 for the evening. ABC was #3 with 7.093 million and a 4.7/8. It was a loss of 680,000 from last year, most of it in the first hour of the evening (A-18-49 2.2/7). NBC was next with 3.901 million and a 2.5/4, about the same as last year showing that NBC just doesn’t have a handle on this evening at all (A18-49 1.2/3), while FOX finished with 3.681 million (down an astounding 4.1 million viewers on the comparable day last year) and a 2.3/4 (A18-49 1.0/3). Univision drew 2.898 million and a 1.5/2 (A18-49 1.1/3) while The CW finished with 2.134 million (down 250,000 from the comparable day last year) and a 1.4/2. FOX News Channel drew 2.102 million viewers and Telemundo had 1.6 million viewers and a 0.9/1 (A18-49 0.7/2).
ACROSS THE POND:
BBC One had an interesting evening. At 8P, ‘Keeping Britain Safe 24/7’ drew 2.51 million viewers (11.4%) while at 9P, the top program of the evening was ‘Christmas Supermarket Secrets’ … yup….Gregg Wallace’s show drew 4.01 million for the top show of the evening in the UK (18.5%).
ITV’s ‘You’ve Been Framed’ at 8P drew 2.3 million (10.3%). At 9P, Susan Boyle’s ‘There’s Something About Susan’ drew 3.19 million (14.7%), good for #2 in this time slot.
On BBC Two, ‘MasterChef: The Professionals’ at 8P drew 3.68 million (11.6%) for #2 for the evening and #1 in this time slot. At 9P, ‘Silent War’ drew 1.16 million (5.4%).
Channel 4’s ‘George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces’ at 8P pulled in 1.26 million (5.27%) while at 9P, the ‘British Comedy Awards’ drew 1.34 million (7.1%) in its annual showcase.
Channel 5 at 9P had ‘Mummy’s Little Murderer’ drew 1.37 million (6.3%) while at 10P, ‘Person Of Interest’ drew 859,000 (5.1%).
ITV 2 at 10P had ‘Celebrity Juice’ which drew 1.11 million (6.6%).
E4 at 830P presented ‘The Big Bang Theory’ which pulled in 1.27 million (5.7%).
After looking at viewership on this Thursday, people were…
Switching Channels!
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