Things went about as expected on the night of the NFC Championship Game.
NBC: We expect the NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME to adjust to 18.8 once west coast timezones are taken into account. You can find more detail about the football playoff (and other weekend sports) ratings in Mitch Metcalf’s SKEDBALL post. The game gave THE FOLLOWING‘s season premiere a massive lead-in, resulting in that show’s highest-ever rating, which adjusted to 4.4 (1.2 above the previous high, last year’s series premiere). Somewhat unusually, the series doesn’t air again until next Monday, so we’ll see if the enthusiasm holds up that long.
ABC: Counterprogramming the big game with female-centric shows didn’t work out too well. This week’s BACHELOR special was at 0.9, down 0.1 from last week’s. REVENGE tied its series low 1.3, down 0.3 (it happened to be the show’s most diverting episode in quite some time), and the “season” finale of BETRAYAL also tied its series low at 0.7, down 0.1.
NBC: The Peacock also went the counterprogramming route with a run of the theatrical BRIDESMAIDS (which has already aired on USA as well as paycable), at 0.9.
CBS: Last week, CBS had the late playoff game and 60 MINUTES was at 4.0; this week it didn’t and the same show was at 1.3. After that it was all reruns, highlighted by 1.0 for CRIMINAL MINDS (which, it should be noted, handily beat the fresh programming on ABC).
All the networks are new tonight, and the showcase attraction is the 2-hour SLEEPY HOLLOW season finale on FOX.
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