Chris Hansen of ‘Dateline’ brought NBC victory on Saturday.
NBC Universal Photo: Virginia Sherwood
Saturday, 03.08.14
NBC won Saturday behind the power of ‘Dateline’. At 8P, for two hours, ‘Dateline’ drew 5.1775, narrowly edging out its rival, ’48 Hours’. But ‘Dateline’ had a peak of 6.14 at 930P, the highest of the night on any network. at 10P, a rerun of ‘Saturday Night Live’ drew a dismal 3.19 million. But all in all, the suits at the Peacock Network are roundly slapping each other on the back for a non-sport programming victory on Saturday.
CBS for some reason wanted to give us all reruns of ‘The Amazing Race’ as at 8P it could only pull in 1.85 million viewers. At 9P, another rerun of the same pulled in similar results with only 2.8 million bothering to tune in. Finally, the cornerstone of CBS Fridays, ’48 Hours’ took over and brought the audience levels up to 5.13 million viewers which was the biggest audience block leading into the 11P local newscasts. With very little effort, the Tiffany Network could have won the night with more inventive programming….like the latest past episode of ‘The Good Wife’ leading into Sunday’s big reboot after weeks of reruns for the powerhouse.
FOX edged out ABC for third place as it presented at 8P another rerun of ‘Almost Human’. It drew 1.89 million viewers which actually beat out CBS’ ‘The Amazing Race’. At 9P, another effort to gain more eyeballs for its failing series hit of last season, ‘The Following’ had very few follow. It drew a poor 1.22 million viewers, losing a third of the audience brought by ‘Almost Human’. In fact from 830P to 9P, it lost 710,000 viewers from the moment it began airing. To the suits of the Animal Network of Broadcast, set Kevin Bacon adrift before he capsizes the entire network.
ABC began, at 8P, with a rerun of the ‘Late Night With Jimmy Kimmel Live After Oscar’s Special’ which did feature an amazing array of great videos from a tremendous list of major guest stars, including a hilarious Kevin Spacey improve of Johnny Carson. His rift against CAA was classic Hollywood inside. The program drew 2.02 million viewers to finish #2 in its time slot. Then the Alphabet Network go silly. It reran, back to back episodes of the dying ‘Once Upon A Time’. At 9P it managed to draw 1.24 million viewers, only beating Bacon’s folly. At 10P, it pulled off 1.37 million viewers from whatever they were doing to tune in. With the big cast, chalk it up to family and friends.
For The Record
NBC won Saturday night with 4.52 million viewers. CBS came in #2 with 3.02 million viewers. Fox finished #3 on Saturday with 1.56 million viewers and ABC was #4 with 1.53 million viewers.
Today In TV History
Castro Converaibles, the first advertiser in color in television history.
On this date in 1954, WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV), in New York, broadcast the first local color television commercial. The ad was for Castro Decorators of New York City. Castro were famous for making the Castro convertible sofa beds or sleeper sofas. The commercial featured a little girl (a member of the Castro family) opening a big couch into a bed. ‘It was so-o-o easy! Let me see you try it.’ The History of Castro Convertibles was a real part of television history, as the young girl, Bernadette Castro, grew up before our eyes in commercials. Castro Convertibles is still in business today and Bernadette and her family continue to run the company.
Welcome to new visitors from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Japan, Australia and Chile.
Across The Pond
BBC One’s ‘The Voice UK’ edged out ITV for the top spot on Saturday.
On BBC, at 7P ‘The Voice UK’ was once again the top Saturday night as it pulled in 6.7 million viewers (29.3%) as contestants faced off for the second round of battle rounds. At 920P, ‘Casualty’ followed with 5.03 million (24%). At 1030P, 3.49 million (25.9%) gathered to watch the football highlights on ‘Match of the Day’.
ITV at 7P, in its 11th season, had ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’ and it pulled in its highest ratings of the season with 6.65 million viewers and a 28.89% share of the available audience but was just a tad behind the power that is ‘The Voice UK’. At 820P, Phillip Schofield’s ‘The Cube’ brought in 3.66 million viewers (16.19%). ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ pulled in 2.58 million viewers (12.57%) with guests Richard Branson, Jennifer Hudson, Davina McCall and Sue Perkins.
BBC Two at 815P had ‘Dad’s Army’ and 1.38 million viewers (6.01%) tuned in. At 845P, ‘The Perfect Morecambe & Wise’ drew a bit more with 1.42 million (6.26%). At 915P, the World War I drama, ’37 Days’ finished with 1.27 million (6.06%).
Channel 4 at 7P presented coverage of ‘Crufts 2014’ and 1.12 million viewers (4.91%) tuned in. The CBS drama ‘Hostages’ followed with 650,000 (3.02%). After that, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ had 630,000 viewers (4.35%).
Channel 5 at 7P presented a double feature of the CBS import, ‘NCIS’ as it drew 513,000 (2.27%) and at 8P drew 629,000 (2.73%). At 9P, the Alexander Gustafsson take on Jimi Manuwa in ‘UFC Fight Night Live’ which drew 591k (3.01%).
BBC Four at 9P presented ‘Salamander’ and 852,000 viewers (3.9%) tuned in for the first episode of the evening at 9pm. At 945P, the second episode drew 785,000 (4.02%).
ITV3 at 7P, ‘Rosemary & Thyme’ brought in 673,000 viewers (2.9%). At 9P had ‘Endeavour’ and it was watched by 799,000 (4.07%).
BBC Three at 914P presented the Will Ferrell comedy, ‘Blades of Glory’ and it drew 606,000 viewers (3.06%).
Down Under
ABC1’s ‘Doc Martin’ was #1 in Australia on Saturday…again.
Seven had the top rating on Saturday but not the top program. Seven drew 30.3% of the available audience on Saturday but lost the top run war.
That belonged to ABC1 and their hit, ‘Doc Martin’ which was the only program to draw above one million viewers. It pulled in 1,148,000 viewers with 321,000 in Sydney; 307,000 in Melbourne; 235,000 in Brisbane; 139,000 in Adelaide and 145,000 Perth. The #2 program also was on ABC1 as ‘Midsomer Murders’ brought in 984,000 viewers. The #4 program in Australia on Saturday was ‘ABC News’ which pulled in 927,000 viewers.
Finally, with the #3 program, Seven got on the board but it was only with the news program ‘Seven News’ as it finished as the top rated newscast with 975,000 viewers. They also pulled in the #6 with the movie, ‘Despicable Me’ which drew 687,000 viewers. The movie, ‘Red’ starring Bruce Willis and a great cast pulled in the #7 top draw of the night with 503,000 viewers.
Nine got on the board with the #5 most popular program of the night with ‘Nine News Saturday’ with 858,000 viewers. Nine’s movie of the night, ‘Happy Feet 2’ was #9 and finished with only 387,000 viewers.
Ten presented the movie ‘Taken’ and 409,000 viewers watch the #8 top program on Saturday. Finally, the #10 top program of the day was ‘Ten Eyewitness News’ as 386,000 viewers watched.
As you can see, no matter where you are in the world, we are…
Switching Channels.
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