Fast National ratings for Thursday, August 30, 2012.
Nearly 11 million people watched combined broadcast network coverage of Mitt Romney accepting the Republican nomination for president, while sitcom repeats and “Big Brother” helped lead CBS to a Thursday night ratings win.
For the night, CBS averaged a 1.8 in the adults 18-49 demographic, with 5.74 million viewers overall. ABC was second (1.4, 5.27 million), followed by FOX (1.1, 3.51 million), NBC (1.0, 3.63 million) and the CW (0.5, 1.29 million).
8 p.m. — Repeats of “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” combined for a 2.0 demo rating and 7.22 million viewers overall, easily winning the hour for CBS. ABC’s “Wipeout” was next (1.6, 5.84 million), followed by repeats of “Raising Hope” and “New Girl” on FOX (1.1, 3.37 million), repeats of “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” on NBC (1.0, 3.44 million), and a CW “Vampire Diaries” rerun (0.5, 1.31 million).
9 p.m. — “Big Brother” (2.3, 6.51 million) won the hour for CBS, followed by ABC’s “Rookie Blue” (1.5, 5.79 million), NBC’s “Saving Hope” (1.1, 4.14 million), a “Glee” repeat on FOX (1.1, 3.65 million) and “The Next” on the CW (0.5, 1.27 million).
10 p.m. — The big three broadcasters all shifted over to coverage of the Republican National Convention, which included speeches by Clint Eastwood, Marco Rubio and Romney. Of the broadcast networks, ABC’s coverage was the most-watched (1.0, 4.17 million), followed by CBS (1.0, 3.47 million) and NBC (0.8, 3.31 million).
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.