ABC’s “Countdown to the CMA Awards” special suffered a pretty big time-slot decline from last week’s episode of “The Good Doctor.” Another 10 o’clock special, NBC’s linear TV premiere of Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol,” was steady in the key ratings demo with the previous Monday’s “Ordinary Joe” episode.
“The Lost Symbol” is a Peacock original — it’s already premiered there.
Anyway, those two broadcast networks tied for first place in the key ratings demo last night, though ABC’s early Nielsen numbers may be slightly inflated due to the local ABC station’s carriage of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game in the Pittsburgh market. The Steelers edged the Chicago Bears 29-27 last night.
NBC and ABC tied for first in ratings, both with a 0.6 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary numbers. NBC was second in total viewers with 4.6 million, ABC was third with 3.9 million.
For NBC, “The Voice” from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. averaged a 0.7 rating and 6 million total viewers. At 10, “The Lost Symbol” bowed on broadcast to a 0.3 rating and 2 million total viewers.
For ABC, “Dancing With the Stars” from 8 to 10 averaged a 0.7 rating and 4.8 million total viewers. At 10, the “Countdown to the CMA Awards” had a 0.3 rating and 2.1 million total viewers.
The actual CMAs air tomorrow night on ABC.
CBS was third in ratings with a 0.5 and first in total viewers with 5.7 million. “The Neighborhood” at 8 put up a 0.6 rating and 5.2 million total viewers. At 8:30, “Bob Hearts Abishola” got a 0.5 rating and 4.8 million total viewers. “NCIS” at 9 drew a 0.6 rating and 7.1 million total viewers. At 10, “NCIS: Hawai’i” had a 0.4 rating and 5 million total viewers.
Fox was fourth in ratings with a 0.4 and in total viewers with 3 million. At 8, “9-1-1” earned a 0.7 rating and 4.8 million total viewers. “The Big Leap” at 9 had a 0.2 rating and 1.2 million total viewers.
The CW was fifth in ratings with a 0.1 and in total viewers with 464,000. “All American” at 8 got a 0.2 rating and 572,000 total viewers. At 9, “4400” managed a 0.1 rating and 356,000 total viewers.
We do not have early Nielsen numbers for Spanish-language broadcast networks Univision and Telemundo.