Primetime Ratings: Almost 13 Million Watch Parton Movie on NBC

Despite a hearty showing for original movie Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors on NBC, CBS won the Thursday broadcast battle on the strength of whopping Big Bang Theory ratings. CBS scored a 2.2 in 18-49 on the night, per Nielsen overnights, and a 7 share. NBC scored a 1.6/5, then ABC at 1.0/3, Fox at 0.9/3 and CW at 0.5/2.

Big Bang scored a 4.0, up 5% from its last airing, then Life in Pieces was up 20% to 2.4. Mom rated a 2.0, up 11%, and 2 Broke Girls was flat at 1.9, before Elementary grew 30% to a 1.3.

On NBC, Coat of Many Colors, depicting a puckish young Dolly Parton growing up poor but mostly happy in the Great Smoky Mountains, rated a 1.8, with 12.8 million total viewers. Jennifer Nettles and Ricky Schroder played the parents of young Dolly and her many, many siblings. That led out of Michael Buble’s Christmas in Hollywood at 1.1, down 23% from last year’s special, which was set in New York.

ABC had a Toy Storyat 20 special, with comments from the cast and director, at 0.9 before an airing of the beloved kid movie at 1.0.

Fox’s two-hour Bones rated a 0.9, down a tenth from its last airing.

CW had The Vampire Diaries at 0.5, flat with last week, then The Originals weighed in at 0.4, down 20%.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.