NETWORK UPDATE: Things got a lot uglier for CBS once THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL was removed from its affiliates’ ratings for the night. Although THE BIG BANG THEORY held onto its 4.1 (season-low) rating, MOM fell 0.2 to 2.5, 2 1/2 MEN dropped 0.3 to 2.4, THE MCCARTHYS lost 0.2 to 1.7, and ELEMENTARY was frighteningly close to PARENTHOOD, down 0.2 to 1.2. Meanwhile, SCANDAL gained 0.1 in final numbers, as did THE VAMPIRE DIARIES.
Ratings in key demos for the Top 25 original cable telecasts (plus a few other lower-rated but noteworthy programs):
As gigantic a draw as NFL football is, there’s still a huge difference in the ratings when a broadcast network is involved. Last week’s game garnered a combined 6.69 rating, 5.3 of it from CBS. This week, without CBS (except on the home affiliates of the teams who were playing), the NFL Network managed just 2.31 on its own–a big number for a still-fledgling cable network, but little more than one-third of last week’s rating. Sports was king on the rest of cable, too, with NBA BASKETBALL on TNT at 1.73, and a major COLLEGE FOOTBALL game on ESPN, pitting Florida State against Louisville, at 1.63, more than quadrupling last week’s 0.38. In regular programming, PAWN STARS (History), at 0.67/0.60, was within a tenth of last week’s 0.65/0.53. NEWSREADERS (Adult Swim) was at 0.45, up 0.07 from last week, and TIM & ERIC’S BEDTIME STORIES was up 0.03 to 0.39. (Everyone’s favorite Adult Swim show, the 4AM INFOMERCIALS, was at 0.41, with 823K total viewers.) On MTV, 2 episodes of RIDICULOUSNESS were at 0.43/0.40, down considerably from last week’s 0.58, and were followed by 3 episodes of SLEDNECKS at 0.38/0.36/0.33. On Lifetime, PROJECT RUNWAY ALL STARS premiered at 0.29, and a PROJECT RUNWAY special afterwards was at 0.21.
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