Friday Ratings: ‘Shark Tank’ Sits Atop The Demo Wars As Folks Hunker Down At Home

Bruce Haring
·2 min read

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The good news is that more people in the choice demos appear to be watching television. The bad news is the reason why, the coronavirus.

For now, television is the great national comforter, and that was reflected in the large audience for its offerings on Friday during primetime. ABC’s Shark Tank was the overall winner of the early results of Friday’s demo wars, clocking with an 0.8. But close behind were four programs with an 0.7.

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At ABC, Shark Tank’s return and strong showing paved the way for newsmag 20/20, which outperformed NBC’s Dateline by double-digits across the board: Total Viewers (+38% – 4.4 million vs. 3.2 million), Adults 18-49 (+17% – 0.7/4 vs. 0.6/3) and Adults 25-54 (+22% – 1.1/5 vs. 0.9/4). For the 4th week in a row, ABC’s 20/20 posted gains over the previous week in in Total Viewers (+2% – 4.4 million vs. 4.3 million) and Adults 25-54 (+10% – 1.1/5 vs. 1.0/5), drawing its largest overall audience and matching its best Adults 25-54 performance in nearly a year.

NBC saw the season finale of Lincoln Rhyme capture its highest rating since its Jan. 10 premiere, scoring an 0.6 and delivering the highest total viewers since its bow. Dateline, although losing the night to 20/20, equaled its top results in 18-49 and 25-54 since Jan. 10, coming in with an 0.6

Fox’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown had a solid 0.7 for its two-hour slot, while the CBS crime drama lineup of MacGyver (0.6), Hawaii Five-0 (0.7) and Blue Bloods (0.7) were also strong.

Finally, the CW saw its demos increase to an 0.2 across the board even as it reran episodes of Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Whose Line Is It Anyway?

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