
What an evening for CBS and ‘The Big Bang Theory’. James Earl Jones and Carrie Fisher brought down the house
When a network begins the evening with the biggest comedy on the air, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, it is little wonder that with James Earl Jones Emmy winning performance and the cameo appearance of Carrie Fisher, the Tiffany Network was off to the races. Drawing 18.88 million viewers and a 12.0 rating and a 19 share of the audience made Thursday CBSday. At 830P, ‘The Millers’ drew 11.79 million viewers and a 6.8/10. At 9P, ‘The Crazy Ones’ drew 8.27 million viewers with a dominant 5.2/ 8, followed by 11 year-old ‘Two and a Half Men’ which drew 8.55 million viewers and a 5.7/ 9 at 930P. Marc Berman believes ‘Most comedies at 930P tend to lose 15-30% of their lead-in, and the growth of 10% for ‘Two and a Half Men’ out of ‘The Crazy Ones’ gives a good reason to renew the program for a 12th season.’ At 10P, ‘Elementary” drew a powerful 10.16 million viewers and a 6.5/11 which out performed all of the competition on broadcast combined. It was the largest audience for the program since the premiere. In an exception episode, Holmes bring new meaning to finding hidden treasures and his ability to become a kinder person. Terrific episode is a ON DEMAND must see.
NBC began the evening with ‘Community’ which drew 2.29 million viewers and a 2.1/3. At 830P, ‘Parks and Recreation’ drew 2.59 million viewers and a 2.3/4. The Peacock Network’s big show of the evening was a ‘Saturday Night Live’ special from 9-11P which drew 4.75 million viewers and averaged a 3.3/ 5. It is hard to believe that both ‘Community’ and ‘Parks and Recreation’ should be on the schedule next season.
FOX in improving. At 8P, ‘American Idol’ began to decrease the loss compared to last year by drawing 11.23 million viewers and a 7.5/12. It was only 6% below last season on the comparable day. The new judges and the talent will make this season’s Hollywood Week which begins next week a Must See TV moment. AT 9P, the new series “Rake” pulled in 5.3 million viewers and a 3.6/ 6, for #2 in its time period. While this may look disappointing to many, it is a series of extremely wry humor and excellent performances from the entire cast. Greg Kennear is a power to be reckoned with and can deliver well written lines as good as any other actor in the business. ‘Rake’ is a Must See TV. If you did not see this episode, it should be o your ON DEMAND schedule.
ABC began the evening at 8-10P with ‘The Taste’ and few wanted to see it. It drew 3.53 million viewers and a 2.8/4. At 10P, a rerun of ‘Shark Tank’ was not competitive drawing only 3.75 million viewers.
The CW at 8P had ‘The Vampire Diaries’ which 2.36 drew million viewers and a 1.7/ 3, and at 9P, ‘Reign’ which managed 1.69 million viewers and a 1.3/2.
On cable, The History Channel’s ‘Pawn Stars’ brought in 4.084 million viewers at 930P, for the highest draw of the evening on cable. At 9P, another episode of ‘Pawn Stars’ brought in 3.848 million. The top drama of the evening was ‘White Collar’ finale for the season on the USA Network. It drew 2.994 million viewers.
Late Night:
NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ again led the evening with 3.5/9; CBS’s ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ drew 2.4/6 and ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ finished last with 1.8/5. At 1235A ABC’s ‘Nightline averaged a 1.2/4. But it was NBC’s ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ that took top honors in this time slot with 1.9/6. A rerun of CBS’s ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ tied ‘Nightline’ with 1.2/4. At 135A, NBC’s ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ averaged a 1.0/4.
For The Record:
CBS again was #1 on Thursday with 11.3 million viewers and finished with a 7.1 ratings and an 11 share of the available audience. FOX finished #2 with 8.267 million viewers and a 5.5/9. NBC dropped to #3 with 4.155 million viewers and a 3.0/5. ABC was #4 with 3.603 million viewers and a 2.8/4. Univision finished with 3.168 million viewers and a 1.8/3. The CW drew 2.022 million viewers and a 1.5/2. Telemundo had a 0.8/1.
Today In TV History:
On this date in 1949, the first TV daytime soap opera was broadcast from WMAQ-TV, NBC’s station in Chicago. It was ‘These Are My Children.’ It was broadcast Monday through Friday in a 15 minutes format (like radio shows of its day) and aired at 5P (ET)/4P (CT).
NBC has ordered two addition episodes of freshman series, ‘Chicago PD’ bringing the first season total to 15.
Welcome to new viewers in the U.S., Canada, The UK, France, Jersey, Switzerland, Germany, Romania, Portugal, Italy, Morocco, India and Australia. This is the first time viewers from the African nation came aboard. Welcome.
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Across The Pond:
ITV began the evening with it’s heavyweight as ‘Birds of a Feather’ stayed on top of the ratings outside of soaps on Thursday with 5.87 million viewers for a 20.2% share of the audience. At 9P, ‘Benidorm’ pulled in 4.63 million (20.0%).
BBC One couldn’t compete. At 8P, ‘Hidden Kingdoms’ drew 2.74 million (12.4%) and at 9P, ‘Silent Witness’ was down again and pulled in 4.95 million viewers (21.4%).
BBC Two at 8P presented ‘Restoration Home’ and drew 2.20 million (9.9%) while at 9P, Dan Snow’s ‘History of the Winter Olympics’ couldn’t compete with the big two and drew 1.18 million (5.1%). At 10P, Charlie Brooker’s ‘Weekly Wipe’ brought in 937,000 (4.9%).
Channel 4 at 8P had ‘The Jump’ and pulled in 1.61 million (7.3%). At 9P, ‘The Undateables’ grabbed 1.85 million (8.0%) and at 10P, Katie Piper’s ‘Bodyshockers’ brought in 1.96 million (11.6%).
Channel 5 at 9P had ‘Dogs Dinner: The Truth About Dog Food’ and had 942,000 dog lovers (4.1%) tuning in. At 10P, ‘Kids Who Kill’ drew 1.07 million (6.3%)).
BBC Three at 9P had ‘Tough Young Teachers’ brought in 683,000 (3.0%).
Down Under:
Network 9 was the top network on Thursday with a 30.9% share and had the top program on Thursday as ‘The Block: Fans V Faves’ drew 1,220,000 viewers with Sydney drawing 321,000 viewers; Melbourne grabbing 412,000 viewers; Brisbane having 261,000 viewers; Adelaide pulling in 109,000 while Perth had 116,000 viewers. It also had the #4 program, ‘Nine News’ which drew 1.023 million viewers. #6, ‘Nine News 630’ drew 989,000 viewers. #7, ‘A Current Affair’ drew 897,000 viewers.
Network 7 grabbed the #2 spot of the day with ‘Seven News’ drawing 1,128,000 viewers. #3 was ‘Today Tonight’ which drew 1.051 million viewers. #5 for Thursday was ‘Home and Away’ with 998,000 viewers. #10 was ‘Coastwatch’ which pulled in 801,000 viewers.
ABC1 had both the #8 and #9 programs with ‘ABC News’ pulling in 882,000 viewers and ‘7:30’ pulled in 880,000 viewers.
As you can see, no matter where people were watching television, they were…
Switching Channels!
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