For NBC, the preseason was nice while it lasted.
NBC: The network launched its Thursday line-up last night against little or no competition from 2 of the other networks…. and fell off a cliff. THE OFFICE, the last remnant of “must see TV,” tied its lowest-rated airing ever at 2.1, which was down a ghastly 1.8 from last season’s premiere. PARKS & RECREATION, at 1.7, was down more than half a rating point from last season’s average. UP ALL NIGHT could only reach 1.3, down more than a rating point from last year’s average, down more than half a point from the average that got Community‘s showrunner fired and the show banished to Fridays, and down 0.3 from its lead-in. And yet worst of all was that lead-in, the SNL WEEKEND UPDATE THURSDAY special, which at 1.6 was down 3 and a half rating points from the 2008 SNL Thursday election specials. Folks, CBS and ABC haven’t even started their Thursday seasons yet; this elevator is only going in one direction. The cherry on the night was ROCK CENTER, with a 1.1 that lost to the Person of Interest rerun on CBS.
FOX: THE X FACTOR was up 0.3 from last Thursday to 3.4. GLEE, with a heavily promoted Britney Spears episode (which of course included an X Factor plug), couldn’t hold last week’s premiere number and slipped to 2.9, still a few tenths better than it was doing on Tuesdays last spring.
ABC: WIPEOUT‘s season finale was the only original hour in the line-up, currently (there were football preemptions) up 0.3 from last week to 1.4. A 1.6 for the repeat of last season’s GREY’S ANATOMY finale indicates viewers are ready for the show to return; the 1.0 for SCANDAL‘s, not so much.
CBS: Reruns of THE BIG BANG THEORY beat NBC’s new shows in the 8PM hour, and a repeat 2 1/2 MEN tied Parks & Rec at 9:30PM.
CW: A VAMPIRE DIARY rerun and THE NEXT are currently listed at 0.5/0.6, but that includes broadcast viewers of the NFL Network’s Giants game in NY, so those numbers will be coming down.
Only ABC has a full new line-up tonight, while NBC airs the ALMA AWARDS, and CW has a new AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL.
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