Primetime Ratings: CBS Wins With Bigger ‘Big Brother’

CBS won the Thursday ratings contest, Big Brother leading the network to a 1.5 in viewers 18-49, according to the Nielsen overnights, and a 7 share. That beat the 1.1/5 put up by Fox and NBC.

The night featured a high number of pre-emptions, with a range of NFL games on different ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates, affecting New York, Philadelphia, Dallas and other major markets. Final ratings are therefore likely to change.

CBS had comedy repeats leading into Big Brother, up 43% to 2.0. A SWAT rerun closed out prime.

Fox had MasterChef repeats.

NBC offered football at 1.3, then a Law & Order: SVU repeat.

ABC did a 0.9/4. The Gong Show up 60% at 0.8 0.5 and Match Game up 67% to, then Take Two at 0.8, double last week’s score.

Telemundo scored a 0.6/3.

Univision rated a 0.3/2.

The CW did a 0.3/1 with reruns.

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.