Primetime Ratings: ABC, CBS On Top

ABC and CBS tied for the top spot in Thursday ratings. A Phil Hartman special paced ABC and Big Brother did so for CBS. Both networks scored a 0.7 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 4 share.

ABC had a Celebrity Family Feud repeat leading into the two-hour The Last Days of Phil Hartman, about the comedic actor who was murdered by his wife in 1998. That did a 0.7.

CBS had repeats before and after Big Brother rated a flat 1.1.

Fox was just off the pace at 0.6/3. It had an MLB game across prime.

Telemundo and Univision both scored a 0.4/2. Telemundo had Exatlon Estados Unidos and El Final Del Paraiso at 0.4, both down a tenth of a point, and Preso No. 1 at a level 0.3.

Univision had La Rosa de Guadalupe at 0.3 and La Usurpadora at 0.5, both down a tenth from the night before. Sin Miedo a la Verdad rated a flat 0.4.

NBC scored a 0.3/2. Return to Downton Abbey: A Grand Event got a 0.4 and The Paley Center Salutes The Good Life a 0.2. An SVU repeat followed.

The CW rated a 0.2/1. The Outpost and Two Sentence Horror Stories both got a 0.2, Outpost flat and Two Sentence down a tenth. 

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.