Prime Time TV Ratings Falter As Viewers Travel For Holidays

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Network and cable television program ratings were hammered by the travel patterns of people on their ways for the four day holiday weekend. Nothing the networks offered for Thanksgiving Eve did well, nor did anything on air the night before. Even popular staples could not draw many viewers.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, only CBS (NYSE: CBS) had reasonable ratings:

The broadcast networks suffered the obligatory drops that come with the busiest travel day of the year, as viewership dropped significantly the day before the holiday :

CBS boasted wide margins of victory, averaging a 2.2 rating with adults 18-49 and 10.2 million viewers for the night, winning every hour. Survivor (2.2 adults) and Criminal Minds (2.4 adults) saw dips of three- and four-tenths of a point, while CSI (2.0 adults) was within a tenth of a point of last week. NBC prepped for next week’s The Sound of Music Live! with a making of special. It averaged a 1.0 rating with adults 18-49, not quite up to the strong Saturday Night Live clip show (1.6 adults) that followed. The network had a 1.4 adults rating and 4.9 million viewers for the night.

The X Factor (1.2 adults) dropped a half of a point from last week, averaging 4.9 million viewers for the network.

ABC, airing encores, took a 0.8 adults rating and 3.6 million viewers for the night. And the CW, with Planes, Trains and Automobiles, took a 0.5 adults and 1.8 million viewers.

And, the only show which did even modestly well based on overnight ratings for the previous night– November 26–was a holiday special– “Rudolph Red-Nosed Reindeer” which was seen by 11.4 million viewers. Two remarkably popular entertainment reality shows barely held their own compared to normally weighty numbers. “The Voice” drew 10 million viewers, while “Dancing with The Stars” drew 14.6 million.  Another reality show was in the top ten for the Thanksgiving Eve prime time. “The Biggest Loser” drew 6.6 million viewers.

One of TV’s longest running and particularly popular franchises also posted a show in the top 10 . “NCIS: Los Angeles” drew 12.2 million viewers.

It has been a hard week for television programmers and broadcasters. Maybe the numbers for pro football and the Macy’s parade will be a little better

 

 

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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