AFTERNOON UPDATE: THE OLYMPICS adjusted up to 6.5 last night, still below the parallel night at Turin 2006 and farther behind the North American 2002/2010 games. Of course, CPMs (the price paid by advertisers for commercial time) have gone up in the past 8 years, so a 6.5 yields more revenue now than it did then, but so have the rights and production costs for the Olympic telecasts, so this continues to be a somewhat disappointing result, especially as live sports in general have gained over the past decade. The only non-Olympic change was a 0.1 rise for ALMOST HUMAN (but not for THE FOLLOWING).
MONDAY CABLE: As usual, the night was dominated by LOVE AND HIP-HOP (VH1) and WWE WRESTLING (USA). Despite the Olympics, both were up 0.1 from last week, to a respective 1.9 and 1.5-1.6. Also up 0.1 was SINGLE LADIES (VH1) to 1.2. SWAMP PEOPLE (History), however, fell 0.2 to 1.1. TEEN WOLF (MTV) slipped 0.1 to 0.9. On ABCFAMILY, both SWITCHED AT BIRTH and THE FOSTERS were up 0.1 to 0.8/0.7. (As always, keep in mind that the MTV and ABCFamily shows are aimed at a younger audience than the 18-49 norm.)
Against the Olympics last night, the other networks barely qualified for the bronze.
NBC: See Mitch Metcalf’s Skedball post for details on the WINTER OLYMPICS ratings. Last night’s preliminary 6.4 puts Sochi behind the last 3 winter games, with a slight overall lead compared to Turin in 2006 only because this year’s Opening Ceremoney was much higher-rated than Turin’s.
FOX: Both ALMOST HUMAN (down 0.4 to 1.5) and THE FOLLOWING (down 0.2 to 1.7) hit new series lows. In the case of The Following, this was its third successive week of new lows, and considering the serialized nature of the series, it’s not clear how many of those viewers will return once the Olympics are over.
ABC: THE BACHELOR tied its season low 2.3, down 0.3 from last week, and was followed by 1.0 for a primetime run of last week’s JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE featuring Matt Damon as Kimmel’s recurring “nemesis.”
CW: In its last Monday run before moving to Fridays, HART OF DIXIE joined the series low club, down 0.1 to 0.3. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was also down 0.1 to 0.3, which tied its series low.
CBS: Only INTELLIGENCE was new last night, and it fell 0.2 to 1.3. Prior to that, MIKE & MOLLY and MOM performed best of the rerun sitcoms at 1.4.
Tonight only FOX is going head-to-head with NBC (although ABC does have a fresh KILLER WOMEN). The 8PM hour on FOX is made up of back-to-back DADS episodes, including the season finale of the surprisingly not-quite-dead show.
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