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The Thrill Is Gone for NBC on First Post-Olympics Night — ‘Stars Earn Stripes’ Is Hardly a Substitute for the London Games in the Ratings

Aug 14, 2012  •  Post A Comment

Two weeks of 30 million-plus viewer averages in prime time — for NBC at least — are clearly over, with the most any network could average on the first night after the Olympics being Fox’s 5.8 million, TVbytheNumbers.com reports.

Citing Nielsen overnights, the story reports Fox as the top broadcast net for prime time overall, both in total viewers and in the key 18-49 demo. With “Hotel Hell” premiering to a 1.9 average and “Hell’s Kitchen” delivering a 2.7 — the best demo number of the night, Fox averaged a 2.3 rating in viewers 18-49, finishing ahead of NBC (1.8 average), CBS (1.3), Univision (1.3) and ABC (1.1).

Fox also won total viewers for the night, averaging 5.8 million to edge NBC’s 5.3 million, ahead of CBS with 4.9 million, ABC with 3.4 million and Univision with 3.4 million.

CBS went with an all-repeat lineup, while NBC and ABC aired fresh programming. NBC’s two-hour premiere of the controversial reality competition “Stars Earn Stripes” earned a 1.7 average rating in 18-49, 23% below last summer’s premiere of “Love in the Wild.” “Grimm” lifted the network to a 2.0 at 10 p.m. for its season premiere, off a tenth from the season-one premiere — which remains the series’ highest-rated episode so far with a 2.1.

ABC didn’t get much out of its fresh reality lineup, but it did pick itself up somewhat from the Olympics-hindered lows of a week ago. A two-hour “Bachelor Pad” delivered a 1.2 in adults 18-49 — up two-tenths of a point from a series-low 1.0 last week — while “The Glass House” managed only a 0.7 at 10 p.m. — an improvement from the series low of 0.6 a week ago.

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