CBS pulled out all the stops on Tuesday with three powerful performances from three of their biggest dramas led by the incomparable ‘NCIS’ which delivered another 18.98 million viewers at 8P increasing to 19.13 million at 830P to lead off the evening, nearly equal to all the rest of broadcast competition combined. When you are contemplating advertising on this evening, think about that dominance. At 9P, ‘NCIS: LA’ led the hour again, beating its closest competition by nearly 3.5 million viewers finishing with 14.65 million. Then at 10P, against the strongest competition NBC could throw at it, ‘Person Of Interest’ won the hour with 11.71 million viewers, reaching a peak of 12.13 million during the first half hour of the program. ‘NCIS’ had one of its most introspective episode in a long time as the lead character came face to face with his aging father and through the program learned the lesson of what is expected of a son in that relationship. Stunningly good episode which is one of the reasons why it is such a powerful program. It finished 7.4% ahead of the same time slot a year previous. ‘NCIS:LA’ brought one of its better episodes to the front on Tuesday as the team raced against time to face runaway train and a runaway son on a collision course of misguided intentions. Bu the most illuminating show of the evening was ‘POI’ as it came ever so close to the conclusion of the famed HR arc solution and solving one of the more interesting assists, with a grifter, that has ever been presented on television before. Great night for CBS.
But do not count out what NBC did in countering the CBS onslaught on Tuesday. They led off with ‘The Biggest Loser’ at 8P which only brought in 6.62 million viewers but what they did at 9-11P with their biggest reality program, ‘The Voice’ was terrific. It did 11.17 million on average, allowing The Peacock Network a solid #2 for the evening. However, to be accurate, ‘The Voice’ went from a high of 12.3 at 9P to 9.98 at 103P.
ABC, on the other hand, led off with their rookie show, ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, while a new low for the show, it finished #2 at 8P with 7.03 million viewers. At 9P, another rookie show, ‘The Goldbergs’ lost over 2 million of the Alphabet Network’s lead-in viewers with only attracting 5.01 million. Then at 930P, a third rookie show, ‘Trophy Wife’ got blasted and dropped another 1.2 million delivering only 3.77 million viewers to the network. Finally, as if punch drunk, ‘In the Spotlight With Robin Roberts: CMA Awards’ could only limp in with 3.39 million, the lowest total on ABC for the night. From hope to depression: that was ABC on Tuesday.
Now we get into an area which is far different from the Hollywood ‘TV Observers’ try to smoke a few programmers and the viewing public. Many of them look at FOX as having a comedy block that has something to cheer about because some of the programming was up a fraction in an increasingly meaningless slice of the demo pie. Television is mass media, folks. Get a grip. FOX’s lineup DID NOT draw well on Tuesday. For those who spin the story otherwise is distorted…not wrong, but distorted.
FOX knew they were in for a struggle on this night from the start. ‘Dads’ finished fourth with only 3.67 million; ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ at 830P upped the ante a bit with 3.89 million viewers; ‘New Girl’ finished with about the same, 3.87 million while ‘The Mindy Project’ dropped a million and finished with 2.88 million viewers. Bad night for The Animal Network with comedy on Tuesday. There is no laughter in the FOX compound this morning in Los Angeles.
The CW, began the evening at 8P with ‘The Originals’ and pulled in 2.03 million viewers, up 125% ahead of last year in this time slot (‘Emily Owens, MD’ repeat). At 9P ‘Supernatural’ gained some traction with 2.10 million viewers which represented a 50% increase in this same time slot a year previous (‘Arrow’ rerun). It was the only network that increased its audience throughout the evening. It was the only network to finish overall ahead of last year on this comparable day. Suits are smiling in Burbank this morning. The Little Network That Could did good.
For the record, CBS was #1 with 15.115 million viewers and a 9.6 rating and a 15 share followed by NBC with 9.718 million and a 5.9/9. ABC finished with 4.935 million viewers and a 3.2/5; FOX drew 3.58 million for a 2.1/3; Univision had an average of 3.1 million viewers and a 1.6/3 throughout the evening and The CW finished with 2.063 million viewers and a 1.3/2 while Telemundo grabbed 1.3 million and a 0.7/1.
ACROSS THE POND: BBC One’s David Tennant’s ‘Escape Artist’ lost nearly a million viewers but still managed to remain the #1 program on Tuesday in the UK. The drama drew 4.11 million viewers good for 18.2% share of the audience at 9P. Meanwhile, over on ITV, their coverage of the Champions League with Manchester United drawing with Real Sociedad beginning at 730P brought in 4 million for an 17.9 share. The rest of the channels really didn’t deliver much.
BBC Two had ‘Masterchef: The Professionals’ at 8P and drew 2.9 million (12.8%) while ‘Iceland Foods’ dropped a b it with 2.21 million (9.8%). That allowed BBC2 to be #3 for the evening.
Channel 4 finished with ‘Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners’ at 8P wow 1.87 million for a starching 8.3%) while at 9P, ‘Embarrassing Bodies’ pulled in 1.37 million (6.1%) for a loss of nearly a half million viewers. At 10P, ‘Masters of Sex’ were not. Or at least not too many wanted to find out about this higher degree in lustful information at only 677,000 watched it (4.4%). That’s what nil-nil football matches bring to the competitive channels.
Channel 5 ran the CBS series ‘The Mentalist’ which only did 1.18 milion at 9P while ABC’s ‘Castle’ brought in 810,000 viewers (4.8%) at 10P.
BBC Three ran ‘Don’t Tell the Bride’ at 9P and apparently not many did as only 777,000 watched it good for a 3.4 share of the audience.
In other matters, a MEDIA NOTE: DirecTV added 139,000 subscribers in the third quarter 2013 in the U.S. The majority is estimated to come from dissatisfied Time Warner Cable customers who abandoned the cable provider during the long CBS dispute over transmission rights.
On the DIGITAL front, Charter Communications revealed that it is coming out with its first mobile stream app with a lineup of more than 100 live TV channels.
On the SOCIAL MEDIA front, Will Ferrell playing his ‘Anchorman’ character, Ron Burgundy, is proving to be very effective for Chrysler Corporation’s Dodge brand. Their ads which broke on October 5, 2013, have drawn over 7 million hits on YouTube. Does this tell you anything about the power of social and video?
No matter where you were viewing on Tuesday, people were…
Switching Channels!
OVERTHESHOULDERMEDIA 