ABC’s ’20/20′ was the top program on Friday.
Friday, 03.21.14 (posted 03.22.14)
While the fans of basketball were glued and switching back and forth on four channels on Friday, including the usual leader on the night, CBS, the Alphabet Network took full advantage and powered to a victory as ABC pulled in an average of 6.84 million viewers beginning at 8P with a rerun of ‘Last Man Standing’ which drew 4.58 million fans. But at 830P, ‘Neighbors’ dropped to 3.78 million viewers. But at 9P, ‘Shark Tank’ drew 8.05 million viewers, a dramatic increase of over 4 million viewers. And at 10P, ’20/20′ didn’t disappoint as it increased the audience to 8.25 million viewers.
NBC began at 8P with ‘Dateline’ and came out of the box swinging with 7.57 million viewers, easily winning the time slot. At 9P, ‘Grimm’ delivered 5.72 million viewers, good for 2nd place in the time slot. At 10P, it all fell completely apart for the Peacock Network as ‘Hannibal’ could only draw 2.79 million viewers, a loss of 4.8 million viewers from beginning to the end of Friday evening.
For CBS, this was ‘March Madness’ as this was the time for the second round of the annual basketball tournament. In the 8-9P hour, it drew 3.39 million viewers. From 9-10P, there were 3.61 million viewers on average At 10P, the coverage on The Tiffany Network pulled in 4.75 million, good for the #2 position on the broadcast channels.
Turner Sports and CBS Sports’ exclusive second-round coverage of the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV on Thursday, March 20, is the most-viewed first Thursday of the NCAA Tournament in 23 years.
Thursday’s games averaged 8.6 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, up 6% compared with 2013 (8.1 million total viewers). The coverage earned a 5.6 rating and a 13 share.
FOX with ‘Rake’ at 8P, 1.92 million viewers finished only 10,000 viewers ahead of The CW. At 9P, ‘Enlisted’ drew only 1.25 million viewers, which placed it at the bottom of all broadcast programs in this time slot. At 930P, ‘Raising Hope’ didn’t as it could only draw 1.42 million viewers.
The CW with the season premiere of ‘Who’s Line Is It Anyway’ at 8P drew 1.91 million viewers and at 830P, had the same total of 1.91 million. At 9P, ‘Hart of Dixie’ in a new time period drew 1.22 million viewers. It was a better Friday for the Little Network That Could. NOTE: The CW was pre-empted in Chicago for NBA Basketball. Its likely these ratings will be adjusted.
Late Night
NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show’ finished #1 with a 3.2/8 while ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ drew 2.3/5. The baseball games delayed a rerun of ‘David Letterman’ as he finished with a 1.6/5. At 1235A, ‘Seth Meyers’ finished with a 1.55 and ABC’s ‘Nightline’ had a 1.4/4. ‘Craig Ferguson’ has a dismal 0.9/3 while an hour later, ‘Carson Daly’ finished with an 0.8/3.
For The Record
On a slower than usual Friday, ABC finished #1 with 6.84 million viewers. NBC came in second with 5.36 million. CBS finished third with 3.91 million viewers. Univision finished with 2.661 million viewers while FOX came in next with 1.63. The CW nearly edged out FOX with 1.57 million viewers.
Today In TV History
Dick Clark interviews Neil Diamond on ‘American Bandstand’ and invites him to the autograph table.
On this date in 1969, Neil Diamond performed “Brother Love’s Travelin’ Salvation Show” on ‘American Bandstand’. For a short interview on long hair and whether it will become fashionable outside of the entertainment world, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oixcT8Y0Ais
Cable News
The great baseball announcer, Vin Scully was there to call the action.
Baseball began the season early this morning in Sydney, Australia, with the Arizona Diamondbacks taking on their division rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers. A capacity crowd saw the first Major League game in 100 years (The Chicago White Sox faced the New York Giants back in the day) in the same famed park. For a look to see the game from an Australian point of view, go to: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/scg-bowls-over-dodgers-legend-vin-scully-20140322-hvlpv.html
Welcome to new visitors in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.
Across The Pond
‘Sports Relief 2014’ on BBC One was a big winner on Friday.
BBC One had a strong Friday night as ‘Sport Relief 2014’ pulled in an average of 7.8 million viewers with peak audiences of 10.3 million. Sport Relief’s return at 1035P was seen by an average of 2.84 million (32.6%). Highlights included Andy Murray on Mock The Week, a Mastermind footballer special and Kylie Minogue performing ‘I Should be So Lucky’.
On ITV, the biggest rating of the night outside of soaps was at 8P with ‘Student Nurses: Bedpans and Bandages’ with 3.12 million viewers (13.9%). At 9P, the big episode of ‘Edge of Heaven’ was seen by 1.13 million viewers (5%).
BBC Two kicked off the evening at 7P with ‘Antiques Road Trip’ which was viewed by 1.39 million (6.7%). It was followed at 8P by ‘Mastermind’ which brought in 1.94 million viewers (8.7%). While at 9P, ‘Gardener’s World’ kept 1.68 million viewers (7%) from the lead in program. At 10P an average of 3.85 million (20.5%) switched over for more ‘Sport Relief’ action.
Channel 4 had its highest rated program on the evening, ‘Googlebox’ with an average of 1.76 million (7.7%) viewers. ‘Marvel: Agents of Shield’ fell to only 920,000 viewers (4%).
Channel 5’s biggest draw of the evening was at 9P with ‘The Disappearance of Flight MH370’ as 1.02 million viewers (4.5%) tried to get up to date information. Just before it at 8O, ‘Ice Road Truckers’ brought in 786,000 viewers (3.4%). At 10P, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ had 643,000 viewers (3.6%).
BBC Three at 10P had the documentary, ‘Life on Death Row’ as it was the biggest multichannel show of the evening with 602,000 viewers (3.4%).
Down Under
Melbourne Press Club last night presented its annual gongs for excellence in Victorian journalism in 2013.
Seven News State political reporter Brendan Donohoe (pictured) won for Best Breaking News Coverage following his live reports of the dramatic resignation of then Premier Ted Baillieu last March. This is his fourth Quill in a decorated career which includes the 2006 Gold Quill.
Seven News was the top program on Friday in Australia.
On an extremely slow evening, Seven edged out Nine by fractions of a percentage point. Seven finished with 30.3% share of the available audience and Nine had 30.0% share. Now, that is close.
Seven however did have the top program as the #1 was ‘Seven News’ with 1,021,000 viewers, as it was the only program to top a million on Friday. In Sydney, 265,000 tuned in; in Melbourne, 281,000 watched; in Brisbane, 153,000 gathered to see what was happening; in Adelaide, 151,000 tuned in while in Perth, there were 172,000 viewers. #5 was ‘Seven News/Today Tonight’ with 871,000 viewers. The #9 program was ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ with 690,000 viewers.
Nine had the #2 program which was ‘Nine News’ with 999,000 viewers. While it was more popular than ‘Seven News’ in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth preferred Seven by a ton. #4 was ‘Nine News 6:30P with 909,000 viewers. #6 program on Friday was ‘A Current Affair’ with 794,000 followers. #8 was ‘Friday Night NRL Live’ with 691,000 viewers.
ABC1 had the top drama for the evening as #3 was ‘The Doctor Blake Mysteries’ which drew 938,000 viewers. #7 was ‘ABC News’ with 716,000 viewers.
Ten had a rerun of ‘QI’ which drew 566,000 viewers.
As you can see, no matter where you are in the world, we are…
Switching Channels.
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