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Thursday Night Ratings Carnage: One Show Bucks the Downtrend in a Big Way, While One Network’s Entire Prime-Time Lineup Struggles

Oct 11, 2013  •  Post A Comment

Almost everything on broadcast prime was down Thursday night from a week earlier, based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo. But TVbytheNumbers.com reports that one show, Fox’s "Glee," bucked that trend in a big way, with its Cory Monteith tribute episode surging to a 2.8 average rating — the show’s best number in more than a year — up from a 1.6 a week ago.

Meanwhile, one big four network — NBC — saw its entire prime-time lineup turn in tepid numbers as the Peacock finished fifth behind Univision for prime time overall.

The best any NBC show managed was a 1.2 average in 18-49, with "Parks and Recreation," "The Michael J. Fox Show" and "Parenthood" all hitting that mark. "Parks" matched last week’s number, while "Fox" dropped a half-point from last week’s 1.7 and "Parenthood" fell three-tenths, hitting an all-time low.

And that may have been the good news for NBC. The bad news: A 0.8 in the 18-49 demo for "Welcome to the Family," down three-tenths of a point from a week ago, and a 1.0 for "Sean Saves the World," off four-tenths from last week.

On a more upbeat note, CBS’s "The Big Bang Theory" led all broadcast shows with a 4.9 average in viewers 18-49, but even that number was down three-tenths from a week earlier. CBS’s "The Millers" also showed some resilience with a 3.1, slipping two-tenths, while "The Crazy Ones" shed a hefty five-tenths of a point, settling for a 2.4.

CBS’s "Two and a Half Men" fell to a new series low, slipping one-tenth from last week’s series low to a 2.3 in 18-49, while "Elementary" also lost one-tenth, settling for a 1.9.

ABC rolled out the premiere of "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland," which managed only a 1.7 in viewers 18-49 to rank as the network’s lowest-rated Thursday fall premiere since "My Generation" in 2010 — and well below the 2.2 delivered in the same time slot by "Last Resort" a year ago.

Elsewhere on ABC, "Grey’s Anatomy" fell three-tenths from last week to a 2.8 in 18-49, while "Scandal" plunged a half-point to a 3.1 but still easily won the 10 p.m. hour against CBS’s "Elementary" and NBC’s "Parenthood."

Fox’s "The X Factor" was down too, but only one-tenth from last week, with a 1.9 average in the 18-49 demo.

For prime time overall, CBS came out on top with a 2.8 average in adults 18-49, ahead of ABC (2.5 average), Fox (2.4), Univision (1.3) and NBC (1.1). CBS held a solid lead in total viewers with 11.0 million, leading ABC (7.8 million), Fox (6.9 million), NBC (3.4 million) and Univision (3.3 million).

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