ratings

CBS and Fox Both Claim Premiere Week Ratings Victories

Official Nielsen numbers won’t be in until tomorrow, but at least two broadcast nets are ready to declare themselves winners. CBS researchers project the Eye, boosted by ginormous numbers for Two and a Half Men, will easily come out on top in overall audience, averaging 12.1 million viewers for the week and easily outdrawing second place ABC (9.8 million), third place Fox (8.2 million) and fourth place NBC (7.5 million). In the advertiser-beloved demo category of adults under 50, however, Fox is predicting it will win the season’s opening battle for the first time ever, with an average rating of 3.3. That’s ahead of second place CBS (which is projecting a 3.1 finish), third place ABC (2.8) and the still-stuck-in-fourth NBC (2.6). Thanks to solid numbers from The X Factor and new hit New Girl, Fox is the only network expected to be up in both viewers and demos; ABC grew its overall audience bit will likely be flat with younger viewers. CBS and NBC will both be down a tick in both categories vs. week one last September. There’s little good news for the CW: With the debut of Gossip Girl delayed until this week, it averaged just 1.6 million viewers last week, down from 2.5 million a year ago; in its target demo of folks between the ages of 18-34, it fell about 40 percent to a 0.8 rating.

CBS and Fox Both Claim Premiere Week Ratings Victories