Ratings mixed for top broadcast networks’ opening week: CBS, NBC see boost, ABC, Fox see drop

CBS and NBC up on opening week; ABC and Fox down

NEW YORK — Opening week of the television season was a split decision for the four biggest broadcast networks: CBS and NBC saw a viewership increase while ABC and Fox saw a decrease.

CBS was the week’s most popular network with a viewership increase of 6 percent over last season’s opening week. This result was despite the increased use of digital video recorders, which allow for later viewing of programs that is not yet measured by the Nielsen Co. The “Hawaii Five-0″ remake, seen by 14.2 million people, was the most-watched new series on the air.

NBC’s viewership was up 8 percent over last year, while ABC was down 13 percent and Fox down 12 percent, Nielsen said. The four networks overall lost a million viewers from last year, a 3 percent change.

“It’s a long season, obviously, but we had a terrific start,” said Kelly Kahl, chief scheduling executive at CBS, which had the top five most-watched new series.

CBS’ boldest scheduling moves also had promising starts. The comedy “The Big Bang Theory” moved to Thursday, with a bigger audience than it had for the Monday opener last year, Nielsen said. “Survivor” moved to Wednesdays but remained competive with a top 20 showing.

NBC’s “The Event” accounted for much of that network’s improvement. The thriller’s Monday night audience of 10.9 million nearly doubled what NBC had in the time slot with “Heroes” last season, Nielsen said.

“Law & Order: SVU,” ”Outsourced” and “The Office” also did well for NBC at the start.

ABC was hurt by the aging of some of its biggest shows, like “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” while none of its new dramas have broken out. “The Whole Truth,” a crime drama looking at a case from all sides, and “My Generation,” tracing high school classmates 10 years after graduation, are already on the endangered list.

Still, ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” was the week’s most popular show and the Wednesday night comedies “Modern Family” and “The Middle” had their biggest audiences ever.

“Everybody had something to be happy about the first week,” Kahl said.

For Fox, the return of “Glee” was a bright spot. It was harder to find others for the network, whose most popular show, “American Idol,” doesn’t come back until January. The drama “Lone Star” premiered for an audience of just 4.1 million viewers (and after a second airing drew even fewer viewers, it became the fall season’s first casualty on Tuesday, when Fox announced it would be replaced by the returning “Lie to Me”).

Score a clear victory for Tom Selleck over Jimmy Smits in their battle of Friday night dramas. CBS’ “Blue Bloods,” with Selleck as a New York City police chief, had 12 million viewers while NBC’s “Outlaw,” starring Smits as a Supreme Court justice who quits, had 4.9 million.

CBS averaged 12.5 million viewers for the week (7.7 rating, 13 share). ABC had 9.6 million (6.1, 10), NBC had 8.2 million (5.2, 9), Fox had 6.5 million (3.8, 5); the CW had 2.5 million (1.5, 3) and ION Television had 1 million (0.7, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 4 million viewer average (0.7, 1), Telefutura had 730,000 and Telemundo 680,000 (both 0.4, 1), Azteca had 240,000 and Estrella 220,000 (both 0.1, 0).

NBC’s “Nightly News” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.9 million viewers (5.2, 11). ABC’s “World News” was second with 7 million (4.8, 10) and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.3 million viewers (3.6, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,159,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 115.9 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Sept. 20-26, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 21.29 million; “NCIS,” CBS, 19.41 million; “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC, 18.52 million; NFL Football: N.Y. Jets vs. Miami, NBC, 18.15 million; “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 15.76 million; “The Mentalist,” CBS, 15.5 million; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 14.69 million; “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 14.63 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 14.41 million; “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 14.32 million.

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by General Electric Co. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

Online:

www.nielsenmedia.com