Preliminary Ratings: Thursday 10/30/14

After seven weeks of THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, CBS premiered its 2014 fall lineup for the night. THE BIG BANG THEORY kicked things off in its usual dominating fashion, pulling in 16.2 million viewers and a 4.1 rating in Adults 18-49. The demo rating is a season low, but viewership is near the season average. It may take a week or two for viewers to remember that the series is back on Thursdays, despite all the promos telings us about it for nearly two weeks.

MOM's season premiere was not bad. It retained 72% of the total audience delivered by BIG BANG, but just 66% in the A18-49 demographic. It is not far off from what THE MILLERS was holding out of BIG BANG, last year.

TWO AND A HALF MEN held onto 100% of the A18-49 demographic from mom, but did drop few 100k in total viewership. That lead into the new comedy, THE MCCARTHYS. It pulled in 8.8 million viewers and a so-so 1.9 demo rating, holding onto about 80% of total viewership and 70% in the demo. Good, but not great. Unless things change over the November sweeps, expect the McCarthys to be the first cancellation by CBS, this season.

ABC was the top network in the A18-49 ratings, but things are not looking good for HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER. Week-to-week, the freshman drama dropped 1.5 million viewers and 10% in the demo. Since the series premiere, five weeks ago, HTGAWM has lost nearly 6 million viewers and just under one-third of the demographic ratings. It is still the top new drama of the season, in the demo, but the return of ELEMENTARY does hurt it.

All four NBC programs saw ratings drop, week-to week, with A TO Z seeing the biggest losses. The freshman comedy dropped 22% in the demo and 17% in viewers. I bet we'll see soon if A TO Z is the second cancellation of the TV season.

Preliminary L+SD Network Averages:

ABC - 8.0 million viewers, 2.5 rating in A18-49

CBS - 10.7 million viewers, 2.4 rating in A18-49

CW - 1.4 million viewers, 0.6 rating in A18-49

FOX - 4.4 million viewers, 1.0 rating in A18-49

NBC - 3.8 million viewers, 1.0 rating in A18-49

Time	Net	Program	Viewers*	A18-49	+/-
8:00	ABC	Great Pumpkin/Charlie Brown	6.30	1.7
9:00	ABC	Scandal	9.20	3.0	45%
10:00	ABC	How To Get Away With Murder	8.50	2.7	-7%
8:00	CBS	The Big Bang Theory	16.20	4.1
8:30	CBS	Mom	11.70	2.7	-28%
9:00	CBS	Two And A Half Men	11.00	2.7	-6%
9:30	CBS	The McCarthys	8.80	1.9	-20%
10:00	CBS	Elementary	8.20	1.4	-7%
8:00	CW	The Vampire Diaries	1.60	0.7
9:00	CW	Reign	1.30	0.5	-19%
8:00	FOX	Bones	5.50	1.3
9:00	FOX	Gracepoint	3.30	0.8	-40%
8:00	NBC	The Biggest Looser	4.40	1.1
9:00	NBC	Bad Judge	4.00	0.9	-9%
9:30	NBC	A to Z	2.60	0.7	-36%
10:00	NBC	Parenthood	3.90	1.1	52%

* - in millions