Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks on Tuesday proved less “spectacular” than last year, drawing in nearly 600,000 fewer linear viewers.
Still, NBC comfortably topped broadcast’s primetime outright, besting the rest of its Big 4 competition combined in the advertiser-sought 18-49 demographic. Of course, everything else on those other channels was a rerun, which diminishes that claim quite a bit.
On the bright side, this show was the second-highest-rated Macy’s fireworks special in four years, and the 2017 TV event grew all the way to its big finish.
NBC was first in ratings with a 1.2 rating/6 share in the key demo and in total viewers with an average of 6 million, according to preliminary numbers. From 8 to 10 p.m., the live run of “Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular” posted a 1.3/7 and 6.4 million viewers. An encore started at 10 o’clock.
In the main demo, the original boom-boom bang-bang special slipped 13 percent versus 2016.
CBS, ABC and Telemundo tied for second in ratings, each with a 0.4/2. CBS was second in total viewers with 4.9 million, ABC was third with 1.9 million, and Telemundo was fifth with 1.014 million.
Fox and Univision tied for was fifth in ratings, both with a 0.3/2. Fox was fourth in total viewers with 1.3 million, Univision was sixth with 957,000.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.2/1 and in viewers with 619,000.