AFTERNOON UPDATE: Both CW shows edged up 0.1 in final numbers, giving ARROW a 1.1 and THE TOMORROW PEOPLE a healthy (for it) 0.7. SVU also climbed 0.1 to 2.0, the first time it’s hit that mark in a while.
WEDNESDAY CABLE: Although DUCK DYNASTY (A&E) took the night’s honors with 3.0 (higher than anything on the broadcast networks except AMERICAN IDOL), the real story was the season finale of AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN (FX), which at 2.2 was up an amazing 70% from last year’s 1.3 finale (and also up 0.4 from last week). The anthology format of AHS lends itself to spin-offs, and FX has to be thinking about ways to expand the franchise. WAHLBURGERS (A&E), with DUCK DYNASTY as its lead-in, was also strong with 1.7. PSYCH (USA) held its own at 0.7.
It’s become a familiar story: American Idol wins, but continues to drop.
FOX: The best of times, the worst of times, as AMERICAN IDOL‘s 3.8 doubled anything else on network TV last night, but was down 0.2 from last Wednesday, and an ugly 1.7 from last year’s parallel week. And before too long, it’ll have to cope with the Olympics.
ABC: Predictably, with reruns of THE MIDDLE and MODERN FAMILY airing last night (with 1.5/1.9 results), both SUBURGATORY and SUPER FUN NIGHT were down, respectively by 0.3 to 1.5 and by 0.4 to 1.3–new series lows in both cases. That being the case, NASHVILLE didn’t do badly, up 0.1 to 1.5.
NBC: REVOLUTION tied its series low 1.3, down 0.2 from last week. Preempted next week and then by the Olympics, it won’t air again for at least 4 weeks. Facing reruns on CBS, SVU rose 0.1 to 1.9, and CHICAGO PD was similarly up 0.1 to 1.7.
CBS: This year’s SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIALS placed second place in the 8PM hour with 1.9, although that was down slightly from last year. CRIMINAL MINDS and CSI were both reruns at 1.3/1.1.
CW: ARROW and THE TOMORROW PEOPLE each gained 0.1, to 1.0/0.6.
The networks are almost all new tonight, with NBC airing an SNL SPORTS SPECTACULAR clip show that’s likely to outrate its normal 9-11PM fare. The number to watch is for the second episode of RAKE on FOX after its so-so start. Meanwhile, on cable USA airs the season finale of WHITE COLLAR.
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