The Sked: Friday Ratings — ABC Settles Down But Still Wins the Night

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ABC turned in a 1.8 rating with adults 18-49 last night, down from the 2.0 last week but still #1 for the night.  Last Man Standing and Malibu Country each posted a 1.6 rating in their second week (down four-tenths of a rating point for Last Man and down a hefty seven tenths for Malibu).  The comedies fell to second place behind a resurgent Undercover Boss this week.  If the comedies can hold a 1.6, ABC should still be happy.  But given the quality of the comedy, it is just as likely the ratings continue to fall to around a 1.3 rating (near last spring’s ShowbuzzDaily forecast of 1.2 for Last Man Standing and 1.4 for Malibu Country).    

Shark Tank continues to dominate the 9 pm hour with a 2.1 rating, down a relatively modest two tenths of a rating point from last week.  20/20 won the 10 pm hour again this week with a 1.6 rating (up one tenth from last week).

CBS averaged a second-place 1.6 from 8-11 pm, up from a 1.4 last week and up from the six-week CBS average of a 1.3 so far this season on Friday nights.  Undercover Boss is the big reason for the CBS momentum on Friday — now a 2.0 rating at 8 pm, up from last week’s disappointing 1.5 season premiere (which was dampened by the first-week sampling of the ABC comedies).  CSI: New York (1.4) and Blue Bloods (1.5) were close to last week’s ratings.

NBC fell to a 1.2 from 8-11 pm last night (from 1.5 last week and now slightly below the 1.3 six-week average so far).  Repeat comedies Go On (0.6) and Guys with Kids (0.7) barely edged The CW’s America’s Next Top Model in the hour, but Grimm rebounded to a 1.7 rating at 9 pm (good enough for second place in the hour and close to the season average for the show).  Dateline NBC at 10 pm fell to a 1.3, a weak third place in the hour.

FOX struggled to a 1.2 rating from 8-10 pm.  The network actually tried to make something happen: FOX bought tune-in radio advertising Friday.  But the off-channel marketing had limited impact.  Kitchen Nightmares rose two tenths from last week to a 1.2 rating at 8 pm, but the hapless Fringe remained stuck at a 0.9 rating at 9 pm.