‘Super Bowl Commercials’, ‘Criminal Minds’ Ratings Top Dueling ‘Harry And Meghan’ News Specials

Patrick Hipes
Updated ·2 min read
‘Super Bowl Commercials’, ‘Criminal Minds’ Ratings Top Dueling ‘Harry And Meghan’ News Specials

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A double shot of news specials about prince formerly known as Harry and wife Meghan Markle hit U.S. primetime on Wednesday — one on Fox and one on ABC — with both scoring almost identical numbers. It was CBS’ annual Super Bowl Greatest Commercials and a season-high result for Criminal Minds however that took the top spots.

Super Bowl Greatest Commercials spiked with a 1.0 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 7.15 million viewers, topping the night in both metrics as fans gear up for Sunday’s Super Bowl, perennially the year’s most-watched TV event. Criminal Minds (0.9, 5.88M) followed by gaining two-tenths to hit a season high, while S.W.A.T. (0.7, 4.41M) also rose two ticks to help give CBS the overall win in both the demo and viewers for the night.

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NBC’s Chicago trio were all in repeats, helping pave the way for CBS.

Fox meanwhile led off its night at 8 PM airing the Telepictures-produced TMZ investigation Harry & Meghan: The Royals in Crisis (0.5, 3.31M). It tied ABC’s own Royal Divide: Harry, Meghan, and the Crown (0.5, 3.44M), which eked out a better viewer number at 10 PM.

ABC went with a mostly fresh lineup for its comedy block with new The Goldbergs (0.9, 3.98M), and Single Parents (0.5, 2.42M) both up a tenth sandwiching Schooled (0.7, 2.90M) which was steady.

The CW’s Riverdale (0.2, 740,000) and Nancy Drew (0.1, 640K) were both even with last week when they returned from their winter breaks.

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