RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Undercover Boss’ Surges, ‘Shark Tank’ & ABC Comedies Up, ‘MasterChef Jr.’ Down, CBS Win Night
Friday night was a good night for most unscripted shows and I don’t just mean for baseball (sorry Dodgers). In fact, on a traditionally older skewing primetime on the Big 4 and with the LA vs. St. Louis Cardinals MLB NLCS Game 6 on TBS, it was a good night overall with most shows either up or essentially steadies. ABC for instance saw rises for its entire line up – comedies, reality and newsmag. But let’s start off with the big jumper – CBS’ Undercover Boss (1.8/7). While not the highest rated show on Friday (that’s you again Shark Tank) or the most watched (Hello again Blue Bloods), the Emmy-winning corporate switcheroo series rocketed up 38% over last week. That’s by far the biggest rise of anyone for the night. And CBS has seen growth in other respects on Fridays too. The network’s new 9 PM – 11 PM crime block teaming of Hawaii Five-O (1.4/5) and Blue Bloods (1.3/4) have both helped pump up adults 18-49 (up 21%) and overall viewers (up 9%) for the network’s Friday primetime compared to last year when it was hit by flop Made In Jersey. Having said that Five-O dipped 5% last night from last week and Bloods slipped 7%. Still, Blue Bloods actually saw a small viewership rise last night, going up to 10.23 million watching from last week’s 10.19 million. In total, CBS took the night’s top spots in both the key demo (1.5/5 rating) and total viewers (9.42 million watching). Yet again, ABC was a close No. 2 among the 18-49s with a 1.4/5 rating. ABC was also in second spot viewershipwise with and 5.46 million watching.
Related: Mark Cuban Cleared Of Insider Trading Charges
While not No. 1, Friday night was still pretty all right for ABC. At 9 PM, Shark Tank (1.9/7) was once again for the fifth week the top rated show of the night. Winning its slot obviously, the entrepreneurial reality series was also up 12% from last week. Coming off slumping numbers the week before, both comedies Last Man Standing (1.3/5) and The Neighbors (1.0/4) were up 8% and 11% respectively at 8PM and 8:30PM. After a stellar result two weeks ago and a 31% dive last week, 20/20 (1.2/4) closed out the night for ABC up 9% from its October 11 show.
Last week Fox’s MasterChef Jr. (1.2/4) was the only show to see a rise, this week it was down 14% from its October 11 broadcast to hit a low. Still the freshman Gordon Ramsay-led kids cooking show can take some solace in the fact that it was basically steady in viewers with 3.8 million to last week’s 3.9 million. NBC’s only original of the night was its 9 PM – 11 PM Dateline (1.3/4) which bopped up 8% over last week. On The CW, America’s Next Top Model (0.4/1) was even in the demo with last week.
Related stories
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘MasterChef Jr.’ Up, ‘Shark Tank’ Tops Demo, CBS Wins Night
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Tops, ‘Masterchef Jr.’ Opens Solid, ‘Hawaii’ Moves
Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
