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Fox’s ’25th Anniversary Special’ Is a Ratings Bust — But It’s Not Alone

Apr 23, 2012  •  Post A Comment

Fox’s heavily promoted ‘25th Anniversary Special,’ accompanied by special airings of the pilots for the network’s seminal shows “The Simpsons” and “Married … With Children,” failed to pump life into the Sunday ratings.

When all was said and done, none of the broadcast networks showed signs of life. They all failed to crack a 2.0 average rating for prime time in the key demo of adults 18-49, TVbytheNumbers.com reports, citing Nielsen overnights.

At the top of the rankings for prime overall Sunday night were ABC and CBS, with 1.9 averages in 18-49, followed by Fox with a 1.7 and NBC with a 1.5. CBS won total viewers with 9.9 million, ahead of ABC (7.5 million), NBC (6.3 million) and Fox (3.9 million).

Fox’s “Married … With Children” pilot at 7 p.m. scraped up only a 1.3 average rating in 18-49, followed by “The Simpsons” with a 1.5. The two-hour anniversary special, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, managed a 1.8 — well short of most of the competition. ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” pulled a 2.9 at 8 p.m., while CBS’s “Amazing Race” grabbed a 2.5.

On NBC, the two-hour “Celebrity Apprentice” was down two-tenths of a ratings point from last week, but its 2.0 in the 18-49 demo still beat the competition at 9 p.m.

One Comment

  1. Not really a surprise… all the good stuff is on cable: Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Veep. Why bother with broadcast?

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