Cops slides on Saturdays; American Dad on two stations in Chicago at the same time?
Here’s a brief synopsis on last Friday’s and Saturday’s night ratings in prime-time during premiere week:
– CBS’ premiere of new drama A Gifted Man on Friday night wasn’t so gifted with a 1.4 adult demo (18-49) rating and a 5 share and 9.45 million viewers – but Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares drew a 1.6/6 despite drawing only 3.9 viewers. Meanwhile, the season premiere of Nikita (on The Can’t Win) flopped with a 0.6/2 and 1.9 million viewers.
– Dateline NBC notched a 2.0 rating from 8-10 p.m. (CT), outdrawing the season premieres of CSI: NY (1.8 – though it did draw 10.7 million viewers at 9 p.m.); Fox’s Fringe (1.5/5) and CW’s Supernatural (0.8/3). However, it tied CBS’ Blue Bloods, which drew 12 million viewers.
– Saturday night is historically the least-watched of the week – it is just as true back in the 1980’s and 1990’s as it is today. With that said, ABC’s (or ESPN’s) College Football game between LSU and West Virginia had a 2.2/7 in adults 18-49 and 6.4 million viewers. Fox’s Cops managed only a 0.9/3 for its new 7 p.m. episode. With former companion America’s Most Wanted casted off to Lifetime, the end is likely near for this once-viable Saturday night franchise. The night’s only other program in originals (48 Hours Mystery) drew a 1.2/4 and 5 million viewers.
Fox drew a 0.7/2 for a repeat of American Dad at 8 p.m. The reason why I mention this because WCIU aired a syndicated repeat of American Dad at the exact same time here in the Chicago market (WCIU had been running American Dad reruns in the time slot for a year now.) And you wonder why viewers don’t watch TV on Saturday nights anymore.