For those who have ever been to Pearl Harbor; for those who know or don’t know about the plight of Japanese Americans during the Second World War in the Islands; for those who love great plot construction and excellent writing packed with emotion, ‘Hawaii Five-O’ was extraordinary. This Friday it wouldn’t win the top prize for the most viewed television program of the evening, but it may become the most important episode of the year. For anyone who loves Hawaii and its history, especially in this time period, you must see this episode on-demand. Earlier, at 8P, ‘Undercover Boss’ led the way with 7.27 million viewers, well ahead of its competition while ‘Hawaii Five-O’ boosted CBS significantly by drawing 8.91 million. At 10P, ‘Blue Bloods’ powered The Tiffany Network to the top with 10.75 million viewers. It had more than doubled all of its broadcast competition. Increasing viewership every hour, CBS gave the competition little chance.
ABC didn’t throw the evening away by mounting a good effort. Beginning at 8P with ‘Last Man Standing’, The Aphabet Network drew 6.26 million but at 830P, ‘The Neighbors’ threw the challenge away with only 4.14 million viewers, a critical loss of more than 2 million viewers in a split second. At 9P, ‘Shark Tank’ tried to lift the challenge back but it was too late. It could only muster 7.12 million viewers against ‘Five-O’. At 10, ’20/20′ dropped back again to 5.95 million.
NBC at 8P brought ‘Dateline’ and it drew 6.11 million viewers. At 9P, ‘Grimm’ drew 5.36 million while at 10P, another episode of ‘Grimm’ brought in only 4.4 million. For The Peacock Network, it looks like a slide downward for the evening.
FOX threw away the challenge on this evening by putting a rerun of ‘Bones’ at 8P. It could only draw 3.51 million viewers. This program deserves better. It can challenge at this time period but the suits at The Animal Network of Broadcast has to understand what the competition is doing especially during a season where it has suffered under the weight of The X-Factor’s collapse. If the competition is putting up first-run programming, go at it with one of the best dramas you have in your camp. At 9P, a fresh ‘Raising Hope’ didn’t stand a chance and could only draw 2.18 million while at 930P, another episode of ‘Raising Hope’ lost all hope with only 1.90 million viewers.
The CW was a disaster. ‘The Carrie Diaries’ drew only 780,000 viewers while ‘Nikita’, once a proud power on The Little Network That Could only pulled in 630,000 to watch. Between The CW’s schedule on Friday and the iHeartRadio stuff they run, it might as well be a lower rung cable network. The demo strategy is not working on these nights. Either change the strategy or suffer the consequences.
For the record, CBS was #1 with 8.09 million viewers. ABC came in #2 with 6.161 million. NBC had 5.687 million viewers while FOX had 2.761 million. Univision drew 2.189 while The CW limped in with 704,000 viewers on average for the evening.
ACROSS THE POND:
BBC One powered through on Friday at 9P with ‘Have I Got News For You’ which drew 4.68 million viewers (22%). At 10P, ‘Live At The Apollo’ drew 3.16 million (15.4%) while at 1030P, ‘The Graham Norton Show’ with guest stars Ben Stiller, James Oliver and Martin Freeman, drew 3.12 million viewers (21.7% share of the audience) giving BBC One a dominating victory.
ITV’s ‘Off the Beaten Track had 2.89 million viewers at 8P, or 13.4% of the available audience while at 9P anniversary concert ‘Boyzone at 20: No Matter What’ drew 3.06 million at 9pm (14.6% audience share).
BBC Two had consistent ratings throughout the evening, gaining 1.74 million viewers (8.1%) for ‘Mastermind’ at 8P, 1.21 million (5.5%) for ‘Kangaroo Dundee’ at 8.30pm and 1.67m (8%) for ‘Wild Burma’ at 9P. At 10P, ‘QI’ was a big ratings winner with 2.05 million viewers (10.7%).
Channel 4, ‘Derren Brown: The Great Art Robbery’ took in 1.63 million (8.1%) at 9P. It was their highest-rated show of the evening, beating ‘Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ with 1.04 million viewers (4.7%) and ‘Alan Carr: Chatty Man’ with 1.02 million viewers (7.3%).
Channel 5 had ABBA night on Friday. At 9P, ‘The ABBA Years’ drew 1.21 million viewers and listeners (5.8%) while at 10P, ‘ABBA: Absolute Image’ pulled in 999,000 viewers (5.7%). At 11P, ‘ABBA: Live In Concert’ drew 891,000 viewers and fans good for 7.9% share of the available audience.
ITV2 had Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet’s ‘The Holiday’ and drew 555,000 viewers (0.9%).
As you can see, people were…
Switching Channels!
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