Thursday Overnights: ABC Wins; ‘Big Brother’ on CBS Tops Night

Best of the Worst: The History of Bad TV in 10 Shows – Click HERE

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Household Rating/Share
ABC: 3.0/ 6, CBS: 2.7/ 5, Fox: 2.0/ 4, NBC: 1.6/ 3, CW: 0.5/ 1

-Percent Change from the Year-Ago Evening:
ABC and Fox: +67 each, CW: no change, CBS: -27, NBC: -16

Ratings Breakdown:
ABC won this third Thursday in September as a result of two-hour ABC News special, “The Last Days of Phil Hartman,” at a 3.0 rating/6 share in the household overnights from 9-11 p.m. ET. But tops for the night was the live CBS “Big Brother” eviction show at a 3.3/ 6 in the 9 p.m. hour. Note to all “Big Brother” fans: didn’t we all know that Cliff ended his game by not keeping Tommy in the house?

NBC featured two specials last night: “Return to Downton Abbey” (#3: 2.3/ 4 at 8 p.m.) and “The Paley Center Salutes The Good Place” (#4: 1.2/ 2 at 9 p.m.). While the critics do love “The Good Place,” the sitcom has never been an arena for many viewers.

Elsewhere, The CW featured drama “The Outpost” (#5: 0.6/ 1 at 8 p.m.) into the season (or series) finale of “Two Sentence Horror Stories” (two episodes: avg. 0.5/ 1 from 9-10 p.m.). Fox featured local baseball coverage and the remainder of the evening were repeat telecasts as follows:

8:00 p.m.
ABC – “Celebrity Family Feud” (R): 3.2/ 6 (#1)
CBS – “Young Sheldon” (R): 3.1/ 6 (#2)
NBC – “Return to Downton Abbey”: 2.4/ 5 (#3)
Fox – Major League Baseball (local coverage): 2.0/ 4 (#4)
CW – “The Outpost”: 0.6/ 1 (#5)

8:30 p.m.
ABC – “Celebrity Family Feud” (R): 3.0/ 6 (#1t)
CBS – “Young Sheldon” (R): 3.0/ 5 (#1t)
NBC – “Return to Downton Abbey”: 2.2/ 4 (#3)
Fox – Major League Baseball (local coverage): 2.0/ 4 (#4)
CW – “The Outpost”: 0.5/ 1 (#5)

9:00 p.m.
ABC – ABC News: The Last Days of Phil Hartman: 2.8/ 5 (#2)
CBS – “Big Brother”: 3.2/ 6 (#1)
NBC – “The Paley Center Salutes The Good Place”: 1.3/ 2 (#4)
Fox – Major League Baseball (local coverage): 2.1/ 4 (#3)
CW – “Two Sentence Horror Stories”: 0.5/ 1 (#5)

9:30 p.m.
ABC – ABC News: The Last Days of Phil Hartman: 2.8/ 5 (#2)
CBS – “Big Brother”: 3.2/ 6 (#1)
NBC – “The Paley Center Salutes The Good Place”: 1.0/ 2 (#4)
Fox – Major League Baseball (local coverage): 1.9/ 3 (#3)
CW – “Two Sentence Horror Stories” (season or series finale): 0.5/ 1 (#5)

10:00 p.m.
ABC – ABC News Democratic Candidates Debate: 10.1/18 (#1)
CBS – “FBI” (R): 1.8/ 3 (#2)
NBC – “Law & Order: SVU” (R): 1.4/ 3 (#3)

10:30 p.m.
ABC – ABC News Democratic Candidates Debate: 8.3/16 (#1)
CBS – “FBI” (R): 2.0/ 4 (#2)
NBC – “Law & Order: SVU” (R): 1.5/ 3 (#3)

Source: Nielsen Media Research