‘Big Brother’ Leads CBS to Thursday Ratings Victory
“Big Brother” and repeats of comedies “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” lifted CBS to victory in key demos on Thursday, a night that saw preemptions or delays in some major markets due to local coverage of NFL preseason action.
According to preliminary national estimates released by Nielsen, “Big Brother” averaged a 2.3 rating/7 share in adults 18-49 and 6.9 million viewers overall — in line with last week and the night’s No. 1 program in 18-49 as well as 25-54 (2.8/8). The reality show was preceded by encores of “The Big Bang Theory” (1.8/7 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall) and “Two and a Half Men” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 6.5 million viewers overall) and followed by a repeat of “Elementary” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 4.6 million viewers overall).
CBS was preempted in primetime in Atlanta for Falcons football and its lineup was delayed in Seattle following a Seahawks game.
ABC could see the biggest downward adjustments in the nationals for its all-original lineup, whose preliminary 18-49 average for the night (1.7) was about double what it did a week ago. The Alphabet aired football in Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. The early numbers showed “Wipeout” averaging a 1.6 rating/6 share in adults 18-49 and 5.1 million viewers overall, followed by “Motive” (1.3/4 in 18-49, 5.9 million viewers overall) and “Rookie Blue” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 5.8 million viewers overall).
NBC, which aired football in Baltimore, started the night with a repeat of “America’s Got Talent” (1.0/4 in 18-49, 4.1 million viewers overall), followed by an encore of “Hollywood Game Night” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 3.7 million viewers overall) and then an original episode (1.3/4 in 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall), which is tentatively at three-week highs.
Fox went with repeats of “Glee” (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.8 million viewers overall), “New Girl” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.5 million viewers overall) and “The Mindy Project” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.7 million viewers overall).
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 1.7/5; ABC, 1.4/5; NBC and Univision, 1.2/4; Telemundo, 0.7/2; Fox, 0.6/2; CW, 0.4/1.
In total viewers: CBS, 6.1 million; ABC, 5.6 million; NBC, 3.9 million; Univision, 3.3 million; Fox, 1.7 million; Telemundo, 1.6 million; CW, 1.0 million.
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