If you thought Barbara Walters was done, finished, kaput…think again. Her 90 minute special on ABC brought The Alphabet Network a rare victory on Wednesday in the US while ‘The Great Train Robbery’ pulled BBC One to the top position in the UK. In the meantime, CBS stubbled with a special leading off the evening; FOX had ‘The X Factor’ to deal with and NBC had its own ‘Sing Off’ problems.
ABC led off with ‘The Middle’ rerun which drew 5.92 million viewers, #1 in its time slot. At 830P, ‘The Goldbergs’ rerun drew 4.85 million, finishing #4 in its time period. At 9P, ‘Modern Family’ rerun drew 5.97 million but the network finished at 930P with ’10 Most Fascinating People’ special with Barbara Walters at 930P and finished with an evening high 8.8 million viewers and a 6.3 rating and 11 share of the audience. It was the only program in the entire evening to finish above last year’s comparable day ratings.
CBS led off at 8P with ‘A Home For The Holidays with Celine Dion’ and it wasn’t well attended 4.9 million. Something happened with Ms Dion after she left her steady gig in Las Vegas a few years back. She fell off the map. And in the meantime, when people don’t see entertainers for awhile, they forget about them. It seems as though this is happening to Ms Dion. At 9P, ‘Criminal Minds’ rerun finished #2 with 6.41 million viewers and at 10P, ‘CSI’ with a rerun also finished #2 in its time period with 6.59 million.
At FOX, ‘The X Factor’ fell 35% below last year’s viewing numbers as it pulled in only 5.02 million. We have said it before and we will say it once again…the days of this singing reality show are done.
NBC led off a 8P with a two hour reality/singing ‘The Sing Off’ which drew 5.4 million viewers. Then at 10P, ‘Michael Buble’s 3rd Annual Christmas Special’ drew 4.99 million.
The CW had ‘THe iHeartRadio Jingle Bell 2013’ and few heard the ring as only 1.38 million viewers decided to watch and listen.
For the record, ABC was #1 with 7.242 million viewers and a 5.0/9. CBS was #2 with 5.962 million and a 4.1/7. NBC finished #3 with 5.293 million and 3.5/6 and close behind, FOX was #4 with 5.025 million viewers and a 3.9/6. Univision finished with 2.785 million viewers. The CW had 1.381 million viewers and a 1.2/2. Telemundo finished with 0.7/1.
Katie Couric’s syndicated show backed by Disney/ABC, will cease at the end of this season. It will remain in production through June and then continue with reruns into September, 2014.
Today in TV History – The TV movie that introduced the world to the fictional family named Walton, “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story,” was first telecast on CBS in 1971. “The Waltons” debuted the following fall (on Sept. 14, 1972) and stayed on the air for nine seasons.
ACROSS THE POND:
BBC One had ‘The Great Train Robbery’ on its schedule Wednesday evening and it pulled in 5.23 million viewers (23.2% share of the audience). ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ drew 4.89 million (21.5%).
ITV’s ‘Lucan’ drew 2.97 million viewer (13.5%) in its second episode, down considerably from last week’s 4.1 million (19.8%) debut. ‘Surprise Surprise’ drew 4.06 million viewers (18.3%).
BBC Two had ‘Wartime Farm’ draw 1.39 million (6.8%) followed by ‘Food & Drink’ which pulled identical ratings and share of 1.39 million viewers and a 6.8% share of audience. ‘Tudor Monastery Farm’ drew 1.51 million (6.6%) at 9P.
Channel 4’s ‘Googlebox’ drew 2.29 million (12.3%). ‘Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners’ drew 1.21 million viewers (5.4%)
Channel 5’s ‘Britain’s Craziest Christmas Lights’ where seen by 1.35 million (5.5%).
In other matters, ‘Break the Safe’, which was BBC One’s highest-rated show of the summer, is returning to the network for a second run. The Thames Scotland competition show will air Saturday nights.
No matter where you watched television on Wednesday evening, people were…
Switching Channels!
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