Preliminary Ratings: Thursday 04/30/15

It was another Thursday night battle for the top spot, between ABC and CBS. ABC took the A18-49 crown by one tenth of a ratings point, over CBS, but the Eye Network easily took the night in total viewers and in the A25-54 demographic. FOX and NBC were way back, batting for 3rd place scraps, with NBC posting the slight better night.

A double shot of GREY'S ANATOMY helped push ABC to the top of the A18-49 ratings. The 8 p.m. episode was down 11% in the demo, over last week's episode. But, the 9 p.m. episode did improve the demo rating by 13%, over last week's SCANDAL episode.

CBS had the three most watched shows of the night and four of the top five in the A18-49 ratings. The MOM season finale was mostly flat, week-to-week, scoring just a 2.0 in the A18-49 ratings. As weak as ELEMENTARY is, in the 10 p.m. hour, it still managed to win its time slot in all three categories.

THE BLACKLIST recorded yet another series low in the ratings, doing no better than ELEMENTARY. The once hot series is dying a slow death, with no support around it. NBC would have done better leaving the series on Monday nights. or, at the very least, placed it at 10 p.m., on Thursdays, with little competition.

Say BYE-BYE to BACKSTROM. The freshman series limped across the line, ready for a quick cancelation by FOX, within a couple of weeks, if that long.

Preliminary L+SD Network Averages:

	Total viewers	A18-49	A25-54+
ABC	7.0 million	2.0	2.4
CBS	8.8 million	1.9	2.8
CW	1.0 million	0.4	0.5
FOX	3.5 million	0.8	1.2
NBC	4.9 million	0.9	1.3

Time	Net	Program	Viewers*	A18-49	A25-54
8:00	ABC	Grey's Anatomy	8.70	2.5	3.0
9:00	ABC	Grey's Anatomy	8.70	2.6	3.1
10:00	ABC	American Crime	3.80	1.0	1.2
8:00	CBS	The Big Bang Theory	13.40	3.2	4.5
8:30	CBS	The Odd Couple	9.30	2.0	3.0
9:00	CBS	Mom	8.80	2.0	2.9
9:30	CBS	TBBT [R]	7.60	1.7	2.5
10:00	CBS	Elementary	6.90	1.2	1.8
8:00	CW	The Vampire Diaries	1.20	0.5	0.6
9:00	CW	Reign	0.90	0.3	0.4
8:00	FOX	Bones	4.20	0.9	1.4
9:00	FOX	Backstrom	2.80	0.7	0.9
8:00	NBC	The Blacklist [R]	3.20	0.5	0.7
9:00	NBC	The Blacklist	6.40	1.2	1.7
10:00	NBC	Dateline	5.10	0.9	1.4

* - in millions