“Dolly Parton‘s Coat of Many Colors” warmed up 12.8 million total viewers last night — the most for a made-for-TV movie across the Big 4 broadcast networks in three-and-a-half years, or a span of 100 movies.
Excluding sports and live musicals, “Coat of Many Colors” delivered NBC’s top total viewer result in the time period in six years, since the “ER” finale on April 2, 2009 (16.4 million total viewers). Finally, “Coat” was NBC’s most-watched scripted telecast since the “SNL 40” special on Feb. 15, which hauled in 23.1 million total viewers.
All that said, CBS managed to top NBC across primetime in the key 18-49 demographic — so we’ll break down its programming first.