CBS’ ‘The Big Bang Theory’ #1 in the U.S. on Thursday.
Thursday, 02.27.14
CBS came out of the box after the Olympics with a powerful Thursday, led at 8P with the #1 comedy on television, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ which drew 17.5 million viewers. At 830P, ‘The Millers’ pulled in another Top 10+ million performance with 11.24 million viewers. At 9P, ‘2 and A Half Men’ brought in the third 10+ million program in a row with 10.05 million viewers. At 930P, ‘The Crazy Ones’ in a hilarious episode titled ‘Zach Mitzvah’, a bar mitzvah held in the office to attract a prospective client drew 7.42 million. At 10P, ‘Elementary’ increased the viewership and pulled in 8.53 million viewers. Of note, both of the episodes of ‘The Crazy Ones’ and ‘Elementary’ were Must See ON DEMAND programs. ‘Elementary’ in particular had an interesting twist which brought Sherlock’s old foe, Lestrade, to the fore in one of the most deducing performances by Jonny Lee Miller, the star. Lucy Liu was outstanding as well and their chemistry is forming and could be made into a top-notch bond. But, the writers are not giving Liu a chance to be much more than window dressing. Great show. Great cast. 2/3rd good writing. The Tiffany Network needs to get on the show runner for not developing Watson’s role better.
ABC began the evening at 8P with a special, ‘Countdown To The Oscars’ which drew 4.69 million viewers. At 9P, a pair of dramas which have been on a three-month hiatus brought strength back into the ABC lineup. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ finished #2 in its time slot with 9.31 million tuning in. But at 10P, ‘Scandal’ returned by holding most of ‘Grey’s’ audience and finishing with 9.27 million watching which was the #1 show in its time slot on Thursday. Absolutely great for the local affiliates for their 11P newscasts. Now, if only the Alphabet Network could figure out a beginning for this night it might have something to compete with.
FOX led off the evening with ‘American Idol’ on what is their usual ‘find out who is eliminated from the competition’ night. It drew 9.81 million viewers to finish a distant second behind the CBS comedy block. Problem is, people tune in for the singing. Let the contestants sing for their supper. Let’s not drag the process through for a complete hour with ‘who cares’ guests performing. Sure it was nice to see last year’s winner promoting her newest release and an unknown, known only by Keith who was the only judge held over from last year. Sooner or later, we know Jennifer will perform during one of these nights and that will draw big numbers. But if something isn’t done about the draggingly slow programming on elimination night, people will just tune in for the last five minutes of the program. As for the 9P time slot, ‘Rake’ in another top-notch performance by Greg Kinnear, left people laughing everywhere as both he and his DA friend tried to throw a case. This program, although only being able to draw 3.45 million (good for #3 in the time slot) was Must See ON DEMAND. It was that good. There is just no correlation between an ‘Idol’ audience and a good adult sophisticated offering such as this. Wrong time. Wrong network. Great program. Outstanding actor. The Animal Network of Broadcast has to find a place for this show to showcase the talents of some very good writers and a great couple of actors.
History Channel’s ‘Pawn Star’ was the #1 cable program on Thursday with nearly 5 million viewers.
The History Channel came in as the #4 network on the evening. The cable channel began with four half hour episodes of the highly popular ‘Pawn Stars’ At 8P, the first episode of the evening pulled in 1.852 million viewers; at 830P, it did 2.571 million; at 9P, it pulled in 4.268 million viewers and at 930P, ‘Pawn Stars’ had the evening high on cable, 4.958 million viewers. At 10P, ‘The Vikings’ pulled in 3.555 million viewers which tied NBC’s highest programming effort of the evening. The History Channel with ‘Pawn Stars’ outdid NBC in every program from 830P through 11P.
NBC was lucky it was an off night for Univision. At 8P, it offered up their tired pair of comedies leading off with ‘The Community’ which had 2.62 million families and friends actually tune in while at 830P, ‘Parks and Recreation’ really did try to come in #5 as it could only pull in 2.46 million guest of the actors. At 9P, a very funny program, ‘Hollywood Game Night’ had to dig out of this hole…which is an immense struggle…and pull in the wandering 3.39 million viewers. At 10P, ‘Parenthood’ used this to increase the audience a bit by finishing with 3.55 million viewers, the highest of the evening on The Peacock Network.
Univision had a bit of an off night, probably because of the heavy hitting from CBS, ABC & FOX in the first couple of hours. At 8P, ‘Lo Que La Vida Me Robo’ drew a 0.9 A18-49 ratings for fifth while at 9P, ‘Lo Que La Vida Me Robo’ had its usual strong performance with a 1.4 A18-49 rating for third. At 10P, ‘Que Pobres Tan Ricos’ fell back a bit to fourth with a 0.9 rating A18-49. Bring on more ‘Lo Que La Vida Me Robo’. Make it a night.
The CW simply didn’t have it Thursday as at 8P, ‘The Vampire Diaries’ could only pull in 1.95 and at 9P, ‘Reign’ should be rained upon by only drawing in 1.31 million viewers. The Little Network That Could, didn’t.
Late Night
If you didn’t think ABC’s ‘Scandal’ was big, look at Jimmy Kimmel’s ratings on Thursday as a pregnant Kerry Washington stopped by ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Thursday after ‘Scandal’ returned from winter hiatus.
At 1135P, ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ coming back down to earth, brought in his lowest rating of the first two weeks of his existence in this time slot with a 3.5/9, with Denzel Washington as his main guest. ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ gave Fallon a run for his money as the program drew one of the best of the year, a 3.0/8. CBS’s ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ drew a 2.4/6. From 1235-105A ABC’s ‘Nightline’ averaged a stronger than usual 1.8/6 in households. Falling back to earth as well in his first week, ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ finished #2 in the time slot with a 1.7/6 but it beat CBS’s lame ‘Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson’ who could only pull in 1.1/4 with his retread monologue and the talking skeleton, dancing horse show. Ferguson barely beat a show which came on an hour later, at 135A as ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ averaged a 0.9/4 in households.
For The Record
CBS finished Thursday #1 with 10.54 million viewers and a 6.5 rating and an 11 share of the available audience. ABC finished #2 with 7.76 million and a 5.3/9. And for one of the few times in history, FOX with ‘American Idol’ did not finish first or second. It drew 6.63 million viewers and a 4.1/6. The History Channel came in #4 on Thursday with 3.457 million viewers. NBC finished a very poor #5 with 3.16 million viewers and a 2.1/3. Univision was #5 with 2.75 million and a 1.6/3. TNT was #6 with 2.72 million viewers with NBA basketball. The CW had 1.63 million viewers and a 1.1/2. Telemundo finished with another 0.7/1.
Today In TV History
Natalie Cole
‘Inseparable’
On this date in 1976, Natalie Cole performed her classic, ‘Inseparable’ on ‘American Bandstand’. To listen, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1HaHr0jAsY
Broadcast TV News
‘The Flash’
The CW has released the first image from ‘The Flash’, which will be introduced in a backdoor pilot on ‘Arrow’ later this season. Grant Gustin has been cast as Barry Allen (a.k.a. The Flash) and the costume was designed by three-time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood, who also designed the costume for ‘Arrow’ and whose motion picture credits include Academy Awards for her work on ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ and ‘Chicago’. Through a freak accident, scientist Barry Allen is given the power of super speed that transforms him into the Fastest Man Alive (‘The Flash’).
Welcome to new viewers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, Germany and Australia.
Across The Pond
BBC One’s ‘Inspector George Gently’ went into the night as #1 on Thursday.
‘Inspector George Gently’ remained #1 in the ratings on Thursday outside of soaps. BBC One’s top program on Thursday drew 5.6 million viewers, which was good for 24.6% of the audience available at 830P. At 8P, ‘Pound Shop Wars’ led in nicely with 4.99 million (23.7%) which was a very good lead in, indeed. At 1035p, ‘Question Time’ drew 2.56 million viewers (23.2%).
Making the 16. Hotspurs Win.
ITV at 745P had the Europa League as Tottenham Hotspurs brought in 3.2 million viewers (14.5%). Tottenham Hotspur restored some pride to English soccer by succeeding where Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all failed over the last two weeks by winning a match in Europe. Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice in four minutes as Tottenham Hotspur overturned a two-goal aggregate deficit to beat 10-man Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3-2 over two legs on Thursday to reach the last 16 of the Europa League.
Channel 4 at 8P brought ‘Supersize vs Superskinny’ and it had a strong 1.38 million (6.3%) watching. At 9P, ‘The Storms that Stole Christmas’ collected an even bigger audience than BBC Two’s humongous airplane with 1.90 million viewers (8.4%).
BBC Two at 7P presented ‘Permission Impossible’ which 1.34 million (6.3%) tuned in. At 8P, ‘Hairy Bikers’ Asian Adventure’ increase the audience a bit to 2.05 million viewers (9.3%). AT 9P, ‘Documentary Jumbo: The Plane that Changed the World’ had 1.34 million (5.9%) see what it is like to have 600,000 passengers on one airplane fly anywhere. At 10P, ‘Mock the Week’ rerun actually brought in 1.10 million (6.3%) after the heavy aircraft got off the ground.
Channel 5 at 8P brought us ‘Henry & Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History’ and 914,000 viewers (4.2%) approved. At 9P, a few more viewers who love to see bed bugs watched ‘The Hotel Inspector’ with 1.14 million (5.0%).
BBC Three at 8P brought us ‘Hair’ and 552,000 (2.5%) tuned in. It was followed at 9P by new series ‘Junior Paramedics’ and 556,000 viewers (2.4%) caught it. At 10P, ‘Bluestone 42’ returned as 484,000 (2.8%) watched.
E4 at 830P had the CBS import, ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and it was watched by 670,000 (2.9%).
ITV2 at 9P had ‘The Big Reunion’ and only 344,000 (1.5%) bothered to watch.
Sky1′ at 9P had ‘The Smoke’ with 324,000 viewers. (1.4%).
Down Under
Nine’s ‘The Block’s ‘Fans v Faves’ showing fan’s team Steve and Chantelle was #1 in Australia on Thursday.
With no ‘My Kitchen Rules’ on Seven, Nine became #1 on Thursday in Australia. With a whopping 30.5% share of the available audience compared to Seven’s 27.3%, Nine had the #1 program of the day with the ol reliable, ‘The Block: Fans v Faves’ which drew 1,297,000 viewers on this summer’s evening with 361,000 watching in Sydney; in Melbourne, 414,000 caught the action; in Brisbane, 265,000 were viewing it; in Adelaide, 132,000 tuned in and in Perth, 124,000 caught it. #2 was ‘Nine News’ for the top rated newscast again with 1,069,000 viewers. #5 was ‘Nine News 6:30’ with 989,000 viewers. You know it is a slow day when the #5 program does not draw a million viewers. Continuing with Nine’s dominance for the night was #6, ‘A Current Affair, which drew 962,000. ‘The Block: Fans v Faves Unlocked’ picked up 875,000 more viewers as the #7 show of the day.
Seven got on board with their leading newscasts as #3 for Thursday tied. ‘Seven News’ pulled in 1,012,000 viewers as did ‘Seven News/Today Tonight’. There were a little fewer in Sydney, a bit more in Melbourne, more in Brisbane with less viewers in Adelaide and Perth for ‘Today Tonight’. #8 was ‘Home and Away’ with 846,000 viewers.
ABC1 finally entered the Top Ten for the week with the #9 program, ABC News’ which drew 831,000 viewers. And, ‘Janet King’ came in with 824,000 viewers for the #10 program.
As you can see, no matter where people were watching television, they were…
Switching Channels!
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