Primetime Ratings: CBS Wins With Bigger ‘Big Brother’
CBS won the Thursday ratings contest, Big Brother leading the network to a 1.5 in viewers 18-49, according to the Nielsen overnights, and a 7 share. That beat the 1.1/5 put up by Fox and NBC.
The night featured a high number of pre-emptions, with a range of NFL games on different ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates, affecting New York, Philadelphia, Dallas and other major markets. Final ratings are therefore likely to change.
CBS had comedy repeats leading into Big Brother, up 43% to 2.0. A SWAT rerun closed out prime.
Fox had MasterChef repeats.
NBC offered football at 1.3, then a Law & Order: SVU repeat.
ABC did a 0.9/4. The Gong Show up 60% at 0.8 0.5 and Match Game up 67% to, then Take Two at 0.8, double last week’s score.
Telemundo scored a 0.6/3.
Broadcasting & Cable Newsletter
The smarter way to stay on top of broadcasting and cable industry. Sign up below
Univision rated a 0.3/2.
The CW did a 0.3/1 with reruns.
Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.