TV Ratings: 'Big Bang Theory' leads CBS Thursday repeat sweep

Repeats of 'Person of Interest' and 'Elementary' also dominate

By Daniel Fienberg Friday, Dec 28, 2012 12:03 PM

Jim Parsons of "The Big Bang Theory"

Credit: CBS

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Fast National ratings for Thursday, December 27, 2012.

On a night of across-the-board repeats, CBS' repeats reigned supreme, led by an encore of "The Big Bang Theory" which did numbers the other networks would kill for from originals.

For the night, CBS averaged a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49, more than doubling the nearest competition in the key demographic. None of the other networks even made it to a 1.0 in the key demo, in fact. ABC's 0.9 key demo rating was good for a distant second, followed by the 0.8 rating for NBC and FOX's 0.7 key demo rating. The CW did a 0.4 key demo rating for Thursday primetime.

Overall, CBS had an even larger margin-of-victory, averaging 9.56 million viewers and a 6.1 rating/10 share, far ahead of the 2.3/4 and 3.58 million viewers for ABC. NBC had a 1.7/3 and 2.61 million viewers for Thursday, topping the 1.1/2 and 1.77 million viewers for FOX. The CW averaged 994,000 viewers and a 0.7/1.

[Univision was actually a solid second for the night in all measures, averaging 4.11 million viewers and a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49.]

8 p.m. - CBS' domination began with repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" (11.99 million viewers and a 3.3 key demo) and "Two and a Half Men" (8.74 million and a 2.3 key demo). ABC was a distant second with "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown," which averaged 4.65 million viewers and a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49. NBC's repeats of "30 Rock" and "Up All Night" averaged 2.39 million viewers and a 0.7 key demo rating, compared the the 1.9 million viewers and 0.7 key demo rating for two repeats of "The Mindy Project" on FOX. The CW's repeat of "The Vampire Diaries" averaged 1.05 million viewers and a 0.4 key demo rating .

9 p.m. - A repeat of "Person of Interest" drew 10.33 million viewers and a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49 for CBS in the 9 p.m. hour. ABC's repeat of "Grey's Anatomy" was second with only 3.2 million viewers and tied for second with a 0.8 key demo rating. NBC was third with 2.03 million viewers and a 0.8 key demo rating for repeats of "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation," which stayed ahead of the 1.64 million viewers and 0.7 key demo rating for FOX's "The Mindy Project." The CW got 939,000 viewers and a 0.4 key demo rating for a "Beauty and the Beast" repeat.

10 p.m. - "Elementary" closed CBS' sweep with 7.98 million viewers and a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49 for a repeat. NBC's "Rock Center," the night's only new program, drew 3.41 million viewers and a 0.9 key demo rating for second. ABC's "Scandal" drew 2.895 million viewers and a 0.7 key demo rating in third.

All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change, particularly in the case of live events.

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Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.