A 11th hour announcement that Bob Costas snagged a phoner with embattled ex-Penn State coach Jerry Sundusky gave Rock Center with Brian Williams a much-needed boost in the ratings Monday. The news magazine averaged a 1.3 rating/3 share and 4.4 million viewers, up 30% from last week, according to early results.
Still, that’s the equivalent of plugging a pin hole in the Titanic: NBC still floundered in fourth place on Monday (1.4/4, 4.6 million), with The Sing-Off not giving the Peacock much reason to croon a happy tune these days. It pulled a 1.5/4, flat with last week, and 4.7 million viewers. For more about NBC’s woes, check out Ken Tucker’s take here.
CBS’ comedy lineup dominated once again, with How I Met Your Mother up 2% to a 4.5/12 and 10.3 million, followed by 2 Broke
Girls (4.8/12, up 4%, 11.6 million), Two & A Half Men (5.3/12, up 2%, 14.5 million), Mike & Molly (4.4/10, up 5%, 12.2 million), and Hawaii Five-0 (3.3/8, up 6%, 11.4 million). Each 18-49 ratings point equals 1.3 million.
ABC was second for the night with a 3.2/8, with Dancing With The Stars earning a 3.4/8 and 18.4 million, and 20/20 posting an 8% increase over Castle’s performance to a 2.8/7, thanks to Diane Sawyer’s interview with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. It averaged 13.3 million.
Fox was third, with Terra Nova earning a 2.3/6, down from 12%, and 7 million. (Hey, the net blames football on ESPN and WWE wrestling on USA!). House earned a 2.5/6, down 11%, and 6.6 million.
We saved the best for last: The CW beat everybody!
Eh, just kidding…just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention. The network only earned a .6/2 in the key demo and a .5/2 in its most important teen demo, after airing originals of Gossip Girl and Hart of Dixie.
Bottom line: ABC averaged the most viewers of the night with 16.7 million, followed by CBS (11.9 million), Fox (6.8 million), NBC (4.6 million), Univision (3.4 million), and CW (1.4 million). In 18-49, CBS was first with a 4.2/10, followed by ABC (3.2/8), Fox (2.4/6), NBC and Univision (1.4/4), and CW (.6/2).
