Fast National ratings for Friday, May 23, 2014.
The first Friday of the summer featured a tie among young viewers and nearly a three-way tie overall. The few notables included a tiny overall bump for the “Hannibal” finale, an OK premiere for ABC's “What Would You Do?” and “Blue Bloods” attracting the night's biggest audience
On the negative side, whatever small audience The CW miniseries “Labyrinth” had in its first part dwindled in its second and FOX's encores continued to barely even get a sampling on Fridays.
NOTE: It was a slow Friday and all Fridays will likely to continue to be slow until September. As a result, I won't be doing Friday Fast Nationals through the summer, which has been by general policy over the years. If anything notable airs on a Friday, I can always check in. Normally I would have stopped after last Friday, but I wanted to make sure I finished out the “Hannibal” season.
On to the numbers…
Among adults 18-49, NBC and ABC averaged a 1.2 rating for Friday night, tops in the key demographic. CBS was third with a 0.7 key demo rating, followed by FOX's 0.3 and the 0.2 key demo rating for The CW.
Overall, though, CBS averaged an estimated 5.255 million viewers and a 3.6 rating/7 share for Friday primetime, compared to the 5.25 million viewers and 3.5/7 for ABC and the 5.23 million viewers and 3.6/7 for NBC. Like I promised, the overall race was tight. Then there was a big drop to FOX's 1.32 and 0.9/2 and to The CW's 0.6/1 and 942,000 viewers.
8 p.m. – “Dateline” started primetime in first for NBC with 5.59 million viewers and a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49. ABC's “Shark Tank” repeat was second with 4.88 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo rating. CBS' “Undercover Boss” repeat averaged 3.86 million viewers and a 0.7 key demo rating in third, still topping the 1.48 million viewers and 0.3 key demo rating for FOX's “24” encore. The CW's second night of “Labyrinth” started with 1.04 million viewers and a 0.2 key demo rating.
9 p.m. – NBC stayed in first for the 9 p.m. hour with 7.245 million viewers and a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49 for “Dateline.” ABC's premiere of “What Would You Do?” averaged 4.95 million viewers and a 1.3 key demo rating for second. CBS was a close third with 4.845 million viewers for a repeat of “Hawaii Five-0,” which averaged a 0.7 key demo rating. FOX's encore of the “Gang Related” premiere averaged only 1.16 million viewers and a 0.3 key demo rating, but at least topped the 848,000 viewers and 0.2 key demo rating for The CW's “Labyrinth.”
10 p.m. – CBS moved into first overall in the 10 p.m. hour with 7.06 million viewers for a “Blue Bloods” repeat, which finished third with a 0.8 key demo rating. ABC's “20/20” was second with 5.93 million viewers and won the hour with a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49. NBC's “Hannibal” finale averaged 2.86 million viewers and a 0.9 key demo rating. [Lest you get too excited about that “Hannibal,” the “Dateline” lead-in helped and I've seen a couple references to sports preemptions in markets including Philadelphia.]
All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change.