AFTERNOON UPDATE: Changes from morning numbers were minor. CASTLE slipped 0.1 to 1.7, an even lower season low, ALMOST HUMAN edged up 0.1 to 1.8, 2 of the BLACKLIST reruns moved up 0.1 to 1.0, and BEAUTY & THE BEAST narrowly avoided the shame of an 0.1 rating for its rerun, rising to 0.2.
MONDAY CABLE: Of course the BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME dominated the night for ESPN, although its 8.7 rating was down half a point from last year’s game. Nothing else came close, with the other decent scores coming from VH1’s LOVE & HIP-HOP (1.6) and SINGLE LADIES (1.4), USA’s WWE line-up (1.6) and MTV’s midseason premiere of TEEN WOLF (0.9). The season finale of MAJOR CRIMES on TNT was at 0.8, even with last week, and 5M total viewers, down by 200K.
Some canny scheduling paid off for ABC last night. Monday’s highest-rated show, however, was the final BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME on ESPN. We won’t have 18-49 ratings for the telecast until this afternoon, but in households, the game scored a 15.3, down slightly from last year’s 15.7 (but up from 2012’s 13.8). Last year’s 18-49 rating was 9.2, so Florida State’s last-minute win over Auburn can be expected to land in the same area, perhaps a touch lower.
ABC: It worked last year, and even better in 2014: the female-heavy audience for THE BACHELOR wasn’t likely to be heavily drawn to the college football championship, so ABC took advantage of reruns on NBC and CBS to launch its official season premiere (after a Sunday “preview”) with a strong 2.7, up 0.4 from last year. However, the strategy didn’t work for CASTLE, which was down 0.3 from its last new episode to a season low 1.8 (also down from last year’s 1.9).
CBS: Even with low expectations, the finale of HOSTAGES managed to disappoint, its 2 final hours matching its series low 1.0, which put it down 0.2 even from its previous episode. The night started with 1.7/1.3 sitcom reruns.
FOX: ALMOST HUMAN benefited slightly from the weak competition, up 0.1 to 1.7. It was followed by 0.8 for a SLEEPY HOLLOW rerun.
NBC: Back-to-back-to-back reruns of THE BLACKLIST at 0.9/0.9/1.1. Humiliatingly for CBS, that last hour beat the final one of Hostage‘s finale.
CW: Even by its standards, a 0.1 for BEAUTY & THE BEAST‘s rerun was pretty horrific. It followed 0.2 for a HART OF DIXIE rerun.
With college football out of the way, midseason TV moves into gear tonight. All the networks except CW are new, and ABC premieres its KILLER WOMEN at 10PM, while CBS airs a “preview” episode of INTELLIGENCE at 9PM. On cable, JUSTIFIED and COUGAR TOWN make their season debuts.
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