Broadcast Network Rankings through December 23

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

THE WEEK.  For the recently completed week  ending Sunday (December 16-23, 2012), NBC is back in first place with a 2.48 rating in prime time, a very good rating for the third week of December.  Two and a half hours of The Voice (4.2 rating on Monday and 4.9 for the finale on Tuesday) and Sunday Night Football game (a relatively mediocre 6.7 rating for 49ers at Seahawks) propelled NBC to victory.  But NBC must say goodbye to The Voice until it returns in late March, and only a few more football games remain (one more regular season game and a few wildcard playoff games).

FOX finds itself in second place with a 1.97 rating for the week.  The X Factor ended its season with a 2.7 for two hours on Wednesday and a 3.1 rating for two hours on Thursday.  Back to the drawing board for that show next season.  The other highlight included a 7:00-7:38 NFL runover into prime Sunday night (a 7.8 rating for New York Giants at Baltimore).   But the real reason FOX finished in second place is that CBS and ABC simply went to sleep.

CBS will post a 1.48 rating for the week.  After original episodes of the Monday and Tuesday lineups, the rest of the week were repeats as far as the eye could see.

ABC is headed for a 1.15 rating for the week.  The highest-rated show of the week for the network was a Modern Family repeat (1.8 rating).  Enough said.

SEASON TO DATE through 13 weeks (official ratings for each night through Sunday, December 23, 2012):

NBC is averaging a 2.73 adult 18-49 rating in prime time (up 20% from the same period last year).

CBS is in second place with a 2.30 (down 17%).

FOX is in third place with a 2.11 (down 25%).

ABC is in fourth with a 1.97 (down 12%).

Collectively, the four networks total a 9.11 rating (down 10% from 10.11 the same period last fall).

The CW, technically a broadcast network, is averaging a 0.58 in prime so far this season (down 11%).