'Blue Bloods' Notches Rare Friday Ratings Distinction

4:16 PM PST 1/22/2013 by Michael O'Connell

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Hitting a season average of 13.5 million viewers in live-plus-7 playback, the CBS series becomes the night's most-watched scripted effort in a decade.

CBS

Reality fare Undercover Boss and Shark Tank may still have the Friday edge in adults 18-49, but CBS' Blue Bloods recently posted a distinctive Friday victory.

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Days after a season high in live plus same day viewers (11.5 million), Nielsen's latest live live-plus-7 returns push the series to an average 13.5 million viewers. That makes it Friday's most-watched show of the season and the perennially struggling night's first scripted series to top 13 million since the 2002-2013 season.

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In addition to being up 8 percent compared to the same time last year, Blue Bloods reaches a ratings high last achieved by Law & Order: SVU (14.92 million) and CSI (14.78 million) when the two raked in huge Friday hauls a decade ago.

Blue Bloods is rising an average of 27 percent (nearly 3 million) in total viewers with live-plus-7 data. In the key demo it's jumping roughly 40 percent to a 1.9 rating.

CBS makes another play for scripted success on Fridays when it launches its sole midseason offering, Golden Boy, in the 9 p.m. hour on Mar. 8. The drama comes to the night after two weeks of sampling on Tuesdays.