TV Ratings:'The Voice,' 'Revolution' lead as Sandy makes a mess of Monday numbers

'Dancing with the Stars' leads ABC to overall win

By Daniel Fienberg Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 2:12 PM

The cast of "Revolution" volunteers to go up against hurricane coverage

Credit: NBC

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Fast National ratings for Monday, October 29, 2012.

On the surface, Monday night's ratings look familiar and straight-forward: "Dancing with the Stars" carried ABC to an overall win, while "The Voice" and "Revolution" led their slots to help NBC dominate among young viewers. Of course, due to Hurricane Sandy, the numbers aren't that simple.

In addition to leaving millions without power (and therefore, presumably, without TV), Sandy caused CBS and The CW to postpone their entire lineups. Even with the networks that tried to show new programming, weather-related coverage led to preemptions and regular interruptions across much of the country. So while both "Dancing" and "The Voice" seemed to have strong nights on Monday, it's unclear how many of those viewers were actually watching storm updates via local news.

In short, many Americans had no access to TV on Monday night and many who did have access weren't watching what the schedules called for them to be watching. So don't expect to learn much from these ratings.

On to the numbers...

Among adults 18-49, NBC averaged a 4.4 rating among adults 18-49 for Monday night, far ahead of ABC's 2.7 rating in the key demographic. CBS averaged a 2.2 key demo rating, while FOX's 1.0 key demo rating and the 0.4 key demo rating for The CW trailed.

Overall, though, ABC averaged an estimated 13.835 million viewers and a 8.9 rating/13 share for Monday primetime, beating NBC's 6.5/10 and 11.36 million viewers. CBS was a distant third with 7.19 million viewers and a 4.6/7. FOX's 1.6/2 and 2.665 million viewers and The CW's 0.6/1 and 826,000 viewers lagged.

8 p.m. - "Dancing with the Stars" began primetime in first for ABC with 14.43 million viewers, coming in second with a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49. NBC's "The Voice" was second with 12.61 million viewers and easily won the hour with a 4.8 key demo rating. On CBS, repeats of "How I Met Your Mother" and "Partners" averaged nearly 6.4 million viewers and a 2.1 key demo rating, topping the 2.95 million viewers and 1.1 key demo rating for FOX's "The X Factor" repeat. The CW's "90210" repeat averaged 986,000 viewers and a 0.4 key demo rating.

9 p.m. - ABC stayed first overall in the 9 p.m. hour with 15.13 million viewers for "Dancing with the Stars," staying second with a 2.8 rating among adults 18-49. NBC's "The Voice" rose to 13.07 million viewers and won the hour with a 5.2 key demo rating. CBS' repeats of "2 Broke Girls" and "Mike & Molly" averaged 7.22 million viewers and a 2.3 key demo rating in third. On FOX, the "X Factor" repeat averaged 2.385 million viewers and a 0.9 key demo rating, better than the 665,000 viewers and 0.3 key demo rating for The CW's "Gossip Girl" repeat.

10 p.m. - "Castle" averaged 11.95 million viewers and a 2.7 rating among adults 18-49 for ABC, with that key demo rating looking particularly inflated by storm coverage. NBC's "Revolution" averaged 8.39 million viewers and won the hour with a 3.1 key demo rating. CBS' hurricane coverage averaged 7.97 million viewers and a 2.1 key demo rating.

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.