The season premiere of CBS’s “Big Brother” on Wednesday inched up from last year’s premiere to take the night’s top numbers, pushing the network to an overall win for the night. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Taxi Brooklyn” got off to a soft start with its premiere, which had a 1.0 rating/3 share in the key 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary numbers.
CBS was first in both the 18-49 demographic most sought by advertisers with a 1.5/5 and in total viewers with 6.1 million. This was largely due to the season premiere of “Big Brother” at 8 p.m., which inched up from last year’s premiere for a 2.3/9 — the night’s best performance in the demo. It had 6.6 million total viewers, making it the night’s most-watched show. Repeats filled out the remainder of the network’s primetime roster.
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Fox was second place in the demo with a 1.4/5 and third in total viewers with 4.4 million. The network’s primetime slate was filled with “So You Think You Can Dance” from 8 to 10, which was off 18 percent from last week in the demo with a 1.4/5. It had 4.4 million total viewers.
Univision was third in the demo with a 1.3/4 and fifth in total viewers with 3 million.
NBC took fourth place in the 18-49 demo with a 1.2/4 but was second in total viewers with 5.9 million. Following a repeat of “America’s Got Talent” from 8 to 10, “Taxi Brooklyn” scored a 1.0/3 — enough to win the hour for the network, and even with the May premiere of “Crossbones,” NBC’s last new drama. But it was down 33 percent from last July’s premiere of “Camp.” “Taxi Brooklyn” had 5.4 million total viewers, up 10 percent from the “Crossbones” premiere.
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ABC, which was fifth in ratings with a 0.9/3 and fourth in total viewers with 3.7 million, ran mostly repeats, with the exception of “Motive” at 10, which slid 30 percent from last week to tie a series low of 0.7/2 and took 3.5 million total viewers.
Telemundo was sixth in the demo and total viewers with a 0.6/2 and 1.7 million, respectively.
The CW, which aired repeats, averaged a 0.2/1 and 1 million total viewers.