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It was all trick and no treat last night, especially for one of the networks.FOX: The network can blame Halloween for distracting some of its family audience, and cite the atypical competition from ABC’s Shrek special, but a 2.1 for TERRA NOVA is still quite alarming. With only a few episodes remaining until its December season finale (FOX had previously said this season would have only 13 episodes), the network will be right to worry until it sees whether the show can rebound next week. HOUSE was also dismal at 9PM, so the goblins were definitely out at Murdoch Manor.
NBC: ROCK CENTER debuted with a 1.0 rating even lower than Playboy Club had been doing, which won’t make the network affiliates who inherit the 10PM numbers for their local news very happy. That was well below even the lousy SING-OFF lead-in, which garnered a 1.4. At this point, NBC is just counting the days until Friday, when they’ll find out if the Grimm premiere was a fluke or something that resembles a success.
CBS: Everything was down (and will likely come down further in final national numbers, due to San Diego coverage of the ESPN game), but not badly. As of now, last night’s 2 1/2 MEN is still running almost 20% ahead of last season’s average.
ABC: The SHREK cartoon repeat did nothing much at 8PM (although not that far below Terra Nova), and may have contributed to DANCING WITH THE STARS‘ depressed rating, pushing it to a start time out of its usual slot. The arrival of Rock Center seemed to boost CASTLE.
CW: Their audience is doing other things on Halloween night, so as is traditional for them, they aired reruns.
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