THE SKED’S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 5/6/12

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES in the home stretch.

ABC:  ONCE UPON A TIME aired a strong pre-season finale episode, setting up a big good-vs-evil confrontation next week, and held steady at 3.0 for the 3rd consecutive week, broadcast TV’s highest rating of the night.  DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is easing more leisurely into the great beyond, without any major cliffhangers for the finale (except for those who think there’s a realistic possibility Bree will end up in jail), but brand loyalty is starting to kick in–the absence of low-rated but female skewing The Good Wife may have helped, too–and Housewives was up a nice 0.3 for the night to 2.8, helping to give ABC the nightly win.  Despite the higher lead-in and the fact that it was the season (?) finale, GCB showed no additional signs of life at 1.8.

CBS:  The network didn’t win the night, but had a mostly good evening nonetheless.  60 MINUTES kicked things off at 7PM with a 1.6 that was 0.4 higher than last week, and the 2-hour AMAZING RACE season finale was up 0.3 (although steady with other recent weeks) at 2.6.  That gave a NYC 22 a much higher lead-in than it’s been getting from Good Wife, but the show couldn’t do anything with it, and was up a meaningless 0.1 to 1.3.

FOX:  All the animated shows were down slightly for the night except AMERICAN DAD, which returned to the air after several weeks of Cleveland Show preemptions up from its last original airing on April 1 by 0.3 to 2.3.

NBC:  It didn’t seem possible that HARRY’S LAW could get any lower, but never say never, as it hit a new bottom of 0.7.  CELEBRITY APPRENTICE was also slightly down from last week to 1.9.

We’re now in season finale territory, and tonight features CASTLE and a special 1-hour 2 BROKE GIRLS, as well as the first part of the 2-night conclusion of THE VOICE.