British ventriloquist Paul Zerdin’s win on Wednesday’s “America’s Got Talent” finale delivered an easy win for NBC in the broadcast ratings.
The competition series’ two-hour finale airing at 9pm drew drew a 2.1 rating/7 share in the advertiser coveted 18-49 demographic and 9.5 million total viewers. This represented a 17 percent increase from last week, despite the fact that the show was up against the 3-hour GOP debate on CNN, which early numbers estimate attracted 20 million viewers.
“Big Brother” on CBS was the second most-watched broadcast program of the night, delivering a 1.8 rating/7 share and 5.8 million total viewers. The season finale of “MasterChef” on Fox was third in the key demo and fourth in viewers, with a 1.5 rating/5 share and 4.6 million viewers.
Overall, NBC was first in ratings with a 1.8 rating/6 share in the key demo and in total viewers with an average of 8.2 million, according to preliminary numbers.
Fox was second in ratings with a 1.5/5 and in viewers with 4.6 million, airing only the “MasterChef” finale in the 8 p.m. ET time slot.
CBS was third in ratings with a 1.0/3 and in viewers with 3.6 million. After “Big Brother” in the 8 p.m. time slot, a repeat of “Criminal Minds” was followed by the special “NFL: Undrafted” at 10, which attracted only 1.6 million viewers.
Univision was fourth in the key demo with a 0.8/3 but fifth in viewers with 2.1 million.
Telemundo and ABC tied for fifth in key demo ranking with a 0.7/2, but ABC was ahead in total viewers with 2.7 million, airing just reruns. Telemundo had 1.6 million.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.4/1 and in viewers with 1.1 million, airing a new episode of “America’s Next Top Model” at 8 p.m. followed by a new episode of “Wicked Offer.”