The good news for CBS: The 37th Annual Kennedy Center Honors rose from last year, handing the network a ratings victory Tuesday night.
And now for the asterisk: The annual ceremony’s victory came amid an utter lack of competition from NBC, ABC and Fox, which opted to air repeats throughout the night.
According to preliminary numbers, CBS came away the clear winner Tuesday night in both the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and total viewers, scoring a 1.2 rating/4 share and 9.5 million total viewers, respectively. The bulk of the network’s primetime slate, from 9 p.m. on, was occupied by the 37th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, which scored a 1.2 rating. That’s up 33 percent from last year’s 0.9 rating — though last year’s ceremony, which aired on a Sunday, faced competition from NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” In total viewers, the Kennedy Center Honors averaged 9.2 million — up 28 percent from last year’s 7.2 million.
An “NCIS” repeat preceded the Honors at 8 p.m.
Univision was second place in ratings with a 1.1/3 and fourth in total viewers with 2.8 million.
NBC was third for the night in ratings and second in total viewers with a 0.8 and 3.5 million, while ABC tied Telemundo for fourth in ratings with a 0.7/2 and took third in total viewers with 3.4 million, compared to 1.6 million for Telemundo.
Fox took fifth place in ratings with a 0.6/2 and averaged 1.6 million total viewers for the night.
The CW averaged a 0.5/2 for the night with 1.6 million total viewers.