Thursday simply belongs to CBS. Even with a compete lineup of reruns and a host of college football bowls being aired on ESPN, it should be called CBSday. At 8P, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ brought in the evenings only 10+ million audience with 10.971 million (it was more than double all of the other broadcast network programming in this time period) while at 830P, ‘The Millers’ brought in 7.435 million; ‘The Millers’ again at 9P drew 5.542; at 930P, ‘The Millers’ had 4.447 million. Finally at 10P, ‘Elementary’ with another rerun, pulled in 5.242, and at 1030P drew 5.417 million, both of which topped their time slots.
On ABC, reruns of ‘Shark Tank’ at 8P brought in 5.58 million viewers, while at 9P, a ’20/20: Secrets of the Castle: Beyond Downton Abbey’ brought in 4.80 million, pulling briefly into the top spot at 930P. This original programming move paid off handsomely with an increase for The Alphabet Network of 1.3 million viewers on a night CBS considered a ‘throw away’. Good move by ABC as it improved the last two hours of the evening by 1.7 million viewers compared to last season’s comparable day.
NBC had an Amy Pohler kind of night. With reruns of ‘Parks and Recreation’ at 8P (2.22 million) and at 830P (2.01 million), ‘The Women of SNL’ rerun special drew an average of 4.02 million.
FOX proved that ‘Glee’ was done as a series. It was an all not-so-Glee night as it drew 1.56 million at 8P and 1.40 million at 9P. OK, kids. Let’s find another high school sing along show.
The CW ran out ‘The Vampire Diaries’ at 8P with 890,000 viewers and ‘Reign’ with 920,000 viewers at 9P.
For the record, CBS was #1 with 6.468 million viewers, down 3.1 million viewers with an all rerun night last year on this comparable day. ABC was #2 with an original program, drew 5.061 million, an increase of 1.48 million viewers, while NBC finished #3 with 3.384 million, an increase of 770,000 viewers. Univision was #4 with 2.875 million viewers. Fox drew an average of 1.478 million, down 300,000 viewers form last season. The CW had 905,000 viewers, a loss of some 85,000 viewers from the comparable day to last year.
OBSERVATION: There is a fascination with British television in the U.S. ABC proved it on Thursday. BBC’s ‘Downton Abbey’, run in the U.S. on PBS, is an attractive program. ABC’s move on Thursday by using one of their most powerful television magazine shows, ’20/20′ to ‘go behind the scenes’ drew a bigger than expected audience. Point: for networks to grab a few extra rating points throughout the year, do something foolish…offer the viewers something original. We don’t like reruns. We want ‘new’. And we particularly like a program about the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era.
ABC now joins NBC as the two networks that have provided the most unexpected programming moves of the year: NBC for the courage to present ‘Sound of Music’ live and to ABC for using their news magazine to give us a further glimpse into ‘Downton’. Both networks did something unexpected on nights when nobody was really caring about the audience. Congrats.
ACROSS THE POND:
It was BOXING DAY in the UK. And David Jason’s ‘Still Open All Hours’ was the most-watched program on Boxing Day, as BBC One’s revival of the classic sitcom attracted an average of 9.43 million (39.9%) at 745P. EastEnders averaged 7.22 million (31.3%) at 715P, with a further 591,000 (3.4%) tuning into the BBC Three rerun at 1030P.
David Walliams and Miranda Hart’s comedy ‘Gangsta Granny’ drew 5.79 million (26.6%) at 615P. The first episode of period drama ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’ took 5.90 million (26.5%) at 815P. The ‘Match of the Day’ pulled in 4.01m (27.3%) between 1030P and midnight.
Over on ITV, 5.08 million (21.3%) watched Emmerdale’s hour-long special at 615P, which saw Declan discover that Megan was trapped inside ‘Home Farm’. The network premiere of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’ was seen by 3.67 million (14%) between at 715P.
‘I Am Britney Jean: Britney Spears in Las Vegas’ followed with 743,000 (3.4%), as well as a further 40,500 tuning in to ITV+1.
BBC Two’s highest-rated show of the night was ‘University Challenge’, which drew 1.22 million (5.1%) at 745P, and ‘Idris Elba: King of Speed’ pulled in 930,000 viewers (4.2%) at 815P.
Channel 4 presented ‘Independence Day’ drew 1.03 million viewers (4.5%) and ‘Jimmy Carr’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year’ was watched by 2.23 million people (11.2%).
‘Michael Bublé’s Christmas Special’ led the night on Channel 5 with 1.18 million viewers (5.1%), while the first round of ‘World’s Strongest Man 2013’ drew 1.05 million (4.7m).
The most-watched film on Boxing Day was ‘Cars 2’, drawing 3.53 million (21.7%) on BBC One at 4P.
No matter where people were watching television, they were…
Switching Channels!
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