Television viewership was down considerably last night, as people got their fat asses off their couches to take their dumb wiener kids out trick-or-treating. But viewership was ESPECIALLY low for “Rock Center,” which debuted on NBC last night; only 4.1 million people watched the new Brian Williams show.
That is below the average for the canceled The Playboy Club that Rock Center replaced (down 38% in the demo from The Playboy Club premiere last month) and lower than the performance of NBC’s veteran newsmagazine Dateline on the less-trafficked Sunday night. It marked NBC’s lowest Monday debut ever… NBC (1.2/3, 4.3 million) once again finished fifth on Monday among adults 18-49 behind the other major English-language broadcast networks and Univision. [Deadline]
“We’re not doing this as a ratings play. We’re not kidding ourselves, we know it’s going to take some time to get established,” said NBC News president Steve Capus during a conference call with reporters Oct. 24. [THR]
Well, at least NBC’s being clear that it’s not making a ratings play. I guess in that regard, “Rock Center” is a huge success.
(I don’t know what’s going on in that picture, by the way. Brian Williams just looked lonely, so I gave him some sad animal friends.)