Primetime Ratings: ‘BattleBots’ Opens Way Down

Big Brother paced CBS to Thursday’s broadcast best, the Eye scoring a 1.2 in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen’s overnights, and a 5 share. ABC was runner-up at 1.0/4, then Fox at 0.7/3, NBC at 0.6/2 and The CW at 0.2/1.

Leading out of comedy reruns, Big Brother did a 1.7 before a repeat of Code Black. Big Brother premiered at 1.8 June 22.

ABC’s BattleBots premiere averaged a 1.0 from 8-10 p.m., way down from its 1.9 opener last year, before a repeat of Celebrity Family Feud.

Fox had Bones at 0.9, up 29%, while Home Free was down a tenth at 0.5.

On NBC, a repeat of Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge led into a new Spartan at 0.7 (it did a 1.5 June 20), then Aquarius at a flat 0.4.

CW had a repeat of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, then a new Beauty and the Beast at a flat 0.2.  

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.