RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Big Bang’, ’2.5 Men’ & ‘POI’ Hit Highs; ‘Glee’ & ‘Office’ Hit Lows
The total viewers series high in Live+Same Day posted by The Big Bang Theory last week (16.68 million) was short-lived as the CBS comedy posted a new high last night. In the fact nationals, Big Bang‘s total audience was 17.39 million, which will climb further in the finals. Last week’s episode crossed the 20 million-viewer mark for the first time in the Live+3 window. Big Bang also posted a season high in adults 18-49 (5.5/17), up 10% from its fast national last week, when CBS’ Thursday comedies faced atypical competition from NBC’s The Voice. Two And A Half Men (4.1/12) was up a tenth from last Thursday for a new season high, eclipsing the two episodes featuring Miley Cyrus (4.0). The season-high trend continued at 9 PM with Person Of Interest (3.1/8, up 7%), which is tied with ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in the fast nationals. Elementary (2.3/7, up 5%) posted its best demo rating in a month. CBS finished No. 1 in 18-49 and total viewers in every hour of primetime to win the night.
After the ratings uptick last week, ABC’s Last Resort (1.3/4) didn’t help its back-order chances last night, down a tenth to tie its series low. Some sort of an abbreviated back order is still a possibility for the male-skewing drama, which was scheduled in a tough 8 PM slot against strong male-skewing CBS comedies and football on cable, leading into two female-friendly ABC dramas. Grey’s Anatomy (3.1/8) was down 6% from last week but Scandal (2.1/6) perked up was up 11% from last week.
Fox’s The X Factor results show (2.4/7) was up a tenth from last week when it aired against The Voice. In total viewers (7.3 million), the bump was 16%. Glee (2.1/5) was down 13% to a series low.
Save for Last Resort, all NBC series rated below every series on the other Big 4 networks last night. The only one to crack the 2 demo rating mark was The Office (2.0/5), whose airing behind The Voice last week didn’t have a lasting effect; the veteran comedy was down 17% and matched its last outing with a regular lead-in. There was no Joe Biden bump for Parks And Recreation (1.7/4), which was flat with last week with its episode featuring the Vice President. In the 8 PM hour, 30 Rock (1.2/4) matched its last airing on Thursday, while Up All Night (1.3/4) was down 7%. At 10 PM, Rock Center With Brian Williams (1.1/3) was up 10%.
On the CW, The Vampire Diaries (1.2/4) was down 20% from last week, and Beauty And The Beast (0.6/2) was down 14%.
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