Amazingly, even with an all-rerun night, CBS can capture Thursday. It did that on a night when the ‘X-Factor’ was holding its finale. CBS was led by ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and once again it was the top show of the night. It finished with 11.13 million viewers at 8P. ‘The Millers’ followed with 7.57 million and at 9P, ‘The Crazy Ones’ drew 5.69 million. All of these programs finished first in their time periods. At 930P, ‘Two & One-Half Men’ had 5.62 million viewers while at 10P, ‘Elementary’ finished the evening with 5.63 million viewers. As this was a Moriority arc, look for Natalie Dormer’s return to guest on the show when Moriarty is brought in to consult on a kidnapping case. The next fresh episode will air on Thursday, January 2 at 10P.
FOX had the 10,000 lbs gorilla on its back all season. The season finale (and perhaps the series finale) drew a very disappointing 6.2 million viewers. The Animal Network of Broadcast could do us all a favor and cancel this program before everyone becomes a critic and refuses to watch anything on network Murdoch built. It finished 3.4 million viewers less than on the same comparable day last year. When you lose a third of your audience, something is stale. It ran behind a rerun of ‘Charlie Brown’ which means what? Vince Guaraldi’s music is better than what this show has to offer?
ABC held a ‘special’ kind of night, leading off with a repeat of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” at 8P with 5.66 million tuning in. It actually beat ‘The X-Factor’ in both half hours. Then a two-hour edition of “20/20” themed “The Year” at 9-11P drew 5.67 million viewers.
On NBC, holiday singing competition “The Sing-Off” finished fourth at 8P with 4.44 million . It was followed by a repeat of “Saturday Night Live: SNL Christmas” at 9-11P and drew 4.32 million.
The CW finished the night with encores of “The Vampire Diaries” which drew 800,000 viewers and “Reign” which attracted 920,000 viewers.
For the record, CBS finished #1 with 6.88 million viewers and a 4.5 rating and an 8 share of the audience. It finished about 300,000 ahead of last year. Fox finished second with 6.2 million and a 4.3/ 7, down 3.4 million viewers less than last year. ABC was #3 with 5.94 million and 4.1/ 7, 620,000 less than last season’s comparable day. NBC dropped to fourth with 4.36 million and 3.2/ 8. Univision was next with 2.76 million. The CW drew 860,000 viewers (down 70,000 viewers) and a 0.7/ 1. Telemundo finished with 0.7/1 as well.
Added note: For every one who wants a ‘Fragile’ for Christmas, TBS will once again present 24 hours of the holiday classic, ‘A Christmas Story’, starting December 24 at 8P. This is the tenth year the marathon has run on the channel; prior to 2004 it ran for seven years on sister net TNT.
USA Network will finish the year as the top ad-supported cable net in total viewers P2+ (2.70MM) for an 8th consecutive year. USA boasts four of the top ten scripted series in basic cable prime: Graceland (4.01 million total viewers), Suits (5.28 million total viewers), Royal Pains (5.3 million total viewers) and Burn Notice (5.69 million total viewers), which held its finale this past year.
Broadcast Sunday Morning News Shows (December 8, 2013)
CBS: Face the Nation 3.63 million total viewers
ABC: This Week 3.10 million total viewers
NBC: Meet the Press 2.40 million total viewers
CBS: Face the Nation-2 1.8 million total viewers
FOX: Fox News Sunday 1.4 million total viewers
‘CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood’ posted gains in viewers (+7 percent, to 5.81 million from 5.41 million) and households (+5%, 4.0/11 from 3.8/10), and was even in A25-54 (1.4/07) versus last year, according to ratings for December 8. Osgood was the number one morning news program in the categories.
Cable networks on Thursday was dominated by the History Channel, with its top program, ‘Pawn Stars, which pulled in 4.059 million viewers at 10P. The network averaged 3.182 million viewers for the evening. USA Network came in with 2.390 million viewers with its top original drama during this time being ‘White Collar’ which on Thursday evening drew 2.52 million viewers. TBS with a variety of program averaged 1.977 million viewers while the NBA laden TNT drew an average of 1.696 million viewers.
ACROSS THE POND:
BBC One’s ‘The Great Train Robbery’ concluded on Thursday evening with the top show of the night. 4.95 million viewers gathered good for 23.1% share of available audience at 8P. At 930P, ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ pulled in 4.23 million (20.1%).
ITV at 830P had ‘You’ve Been Framed’ and 2.95 million watched (13.9%). A celebrity edition of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ followed at 9P with 2.78 million (13.3%) watching.
BBC Two had the ‘Hairy Bikers’ Christmas Party’ at 7P and 1.56 million (7.7%) watched, followed by Alex Polizzi’s ‘Christmas Fix’ with 1.78 million (8.3%) at 8pm. Alexander Armstrong and Giles Coren’s ’12 Drinks of Christmas’ was viewed by 1.45 million (6.8%) at 9pm.
Channel 4 at 8P had George Clarke’s ‘Amazing Spaces’, which drew 1.21m (5.7%). At 9P, ‘Educating Yorkshire’ had 2.02 million viewers (9.5%). At 10P, ‘What Happens in Kavos’ was seen by 909,000 viewers (4.9%).
Channel 5 at 9P had ‘Caught on Camera’ which only appealed to 864,000 viewers (4.1%). At 10P, ‘Person of Interest’ drew 835,000 viewers (4.9%).
BBC Three at 9P had ‘Christmas on Benefits’ which attracted 568,000 viewers (2.7%), and at 11P, ‘Family Guy’ pulled in a few more with 838,000 viewers (7.7%).
No matter where you were watching television on Thursday, people were…
Switching Channels!
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