Wednesday night was a big night for reality TV. Both ABC's The Mole and Fox's Temptation Island ended their season runs with strong ratings, including 17.3 million viewers for Temptation's emotional finale.
The Fox series dominated its 9 p.m. ET/PT time period, outperforming original episodes of The West Wing, Drew Carey/Spin City and CBS' movie Sanctuary. Temptation Island finished its two month run with a 9.4 rating/21 share in adults 18-49 and an 11.3/17 household figure, according to fast-national data from Nielsen Media Research.
Temptation Island also scored a 12.0/29 in adults 18-34, outperforming ABC, CBS and NBC's combined ratings in the demo from 9-10 p.m.
As for The Mole, the ABC reality project ended its two-month run with its highest ratings to date. The Mole averaged 15.5 million viewers and a 6.0/16 in adults 18-49 from 8-9 p.m. ET/PT. It was the highest rated Mole of the season in both adults 18-49 and total viewers.
ABC has ordered another installment of The Mole for next season and Fox executives are not commenting, but sources say the network is looking to do another Temptation Island next year as well.
- Joe Schlosser
