The Sked: TUESDAY RATINGS May 29

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America’s Got Talent powered NBC to another nightly victory last night.  A repeat AGT scored a 2.0 preliminary rating with Adults 18-49 at 8 pm, and an original hour at 9 pm averaged a 3.7 rating (up from the show’s 3.3 last week in the same hour against the Dancing with the Stars finale but down from the 4.3 rating for AGT on the same night last year).  The solid lead-in gave a special repeat of Grimm a chance for sampling at 10 pm (1.3 rating last night compared to Monday’s 0.9 for a repeat Grimm after the much lower rated American Ninja Warrior).  NBC averaged a 2.3 from 8-11 pm, down from a stunning 4.5 on the same night last year when AGT (4.3 from 8-10 pm) combined with The Voice (4.9 from 10-11 pm).

The other networks provided little competition.  CBS averaged a second-place 1.4 on the night with a repeat NCIS (1.4), repeat NCIS: Los Angeles (1.3) and 48 Hours Mystery (1.4).  The night closely resembled the same night last year (1.4 from 8-11 pm): repeat NCIS (1.8), repeat NCIS: Los Angeles (1.6) and repeat Good Wife (0.9).

ABC had the most to lose last night in the yearly comparisons.  Last year on Tuesday, May 31, ABC actually beat NBC’s big night with a 4.8 rating from 8-11 pm: Jimmy Kimmel Live special (1.1 at 8:00), NBA Countdown (1.9 at 8:30) and NBA Finals Game 1 Dallas at Miami (6.5 at 9:00).  With the NBA calendar shifted slightly because of this year’s strike, ABC will see the Finals a little later than normal.  In the meantime, ABC said goodbye to Cougar Town with a 1.2 rating at 8:00 and a 1.1 for the finale at 8:30.  Ouch, down on the half hour with itself as a lead-in.  But a special 20/20 picked up the slack a bit, averaging a 1.3 from 9-11 pm with a Katie Couric special about Queen Elizabeth.  The telecast started at a 1.1 in the 9:00 half hour and peaked at a 1.5 in the 10:00 half hour.

FOX tried a marathon of New Girl repeats and ended up with a flat 1.0 rating in each half hour.  Last year on the same night, FOX received the same result (1.0 average from 8-10 pm) from a repeat Glee (1.0), Raising Hope (1.1) and Traffic Light (0.8).

Worst performance of the night goes to The CW, however.  Original episodes of reality averaged a 0.3 rating from 8-10 pm (the premiere of The Catalina and the finale of L.A. Complex each rated a 0.3).  This was actually down from two repeat episodes of America’s Next Top Model on the night last year (both averaging a 0.4 rating).