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Football Tweaks Thursday Ratings … But It Looks Like a Big Night for ‘Big Brother’

Aug 30, 2013  •  Post A Comment

On a night when NFL preseason football broadcasts played heck with broadcast lineups, CBS drove to a comfortable win as "Big Brother" blew its competition out of the stadium, based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that "Big Brother" notched a 2.6 average in viewers 18-49, surging a half-point from a week ago. But the report adds: "There were numerous local pre-emptions for NFL preseason football on ABC, Fox, CBS, The CW and NBC. CBS had pre-emptions in approximately 40% of the country due to NFL preseason football."

Consequently, the broadcast network results are probably inflated and are subject to more than the usual adjustments, the report notes. But nonetheless, here they are:

CBS easily won the night, averaging a 2.0 for prime time overall in adults 18-49, followed by NBC (1.5), ABC (1.4), Fox (1.4), Univision (1.3) and CW (0.4). CBS also won total viewers, averaging 7.2 million to lead ABC (6.3 million), NBC (4.9 million), Fox (4.5 million), Univision (3.4 million) and CW (1.1 million).

CBS sandwiched "Big Brother" in the middle of a lineup of repeat programs, with the best result being a 1.8 average for "Two and a Half Men" in the 18-49 demo.

NBC aired the finale of "Hollywood Game Night," which didn’t do much better than its lead-in, a repeat installment of the show. Both programs averaged 1.5 ratings in viewers 18-49, with the finale nosing ahead in total viewers, 4.82 million to 4.66 million. A rerun of "America’s Got Talent" opened prime time with a 1.4 in 18-49 and 5.16 million viewers.

Third-place ABC was the only one of the big 4 broadcasters to put up a schedule consisting entirely of fresh programming. Back-to-back editions of "Motive" settled for a 1.3 and a 1.4 average in the 18-49 demo, while "Rookie Blue" pulled in a 1.5.

Fox matched ABC’s 1.4 demo average for the night with repeats of "Glee," "New Girl" and "The Mindy Project."

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