TV Ratings: CBS Season Highs Best 'X Factor' and 'Bones' on Thursday Night

CBS

CBS beat Fox among adults 18-49 on Thursday night, buoyed by the Pittsburgh affiliate airing the Steelers/Browns match-up and initial numbers giving a season high for The Mentalist and Person of Interest's strongest showing since its premiere in September.

Averaging a 3.3 rating in the key demo, with an audience of 12.3 million, CBS kicked off the night with a 4.7 among adults 18-49 with a new episode of The Big Bang Theory. Rules of Engagement followed with a 3.2, with the 9:00 p.m. broadcast of Person of Interest pulling a 3.0. That's only down a tenth of a point from its series debut and marks its second highest showing of the season. The Mentalist enjoyed a season high with a 3.0 rating in the demo.

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Fox's dramatic X-Factor elimination and a new episode of Bones were both down a tenth of a point in their 18-49 rating from last week, pulling in a respective 3.0 and 2.7 in the demo. The network averaged a 2.8, with the second strongest audience of the night, 9.5 million.

NBC finally saw some traction at 10:00 p.m. A new episode of Grimm, sitting in the old Prime Suspect slot, gave the network an 11-week high among adults 18-49. It scored a 1.6 rating. As for its comedic lead-ins, The Office (2.9) and Whitney (1.9) were both steady with their last two performances. At 8:00 p.m., however, the last episode of Community before its hiatus was down two tenths of a point for a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49. Parks and Recreation was down one tenth of a point for a 1.7 in 18-49-ers, giving the network a nightly average of a 1.9 and a viewership of 4.2 million.

ABC placed fourth with a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49 and a slightly skewed line-up of Wipeout (1.9), a holiday-themed America's Funniest Home Videos (1.9) and The Great Big American Auction (1.4). The net averaged 5.96 million viewers for the night.

The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle continued their stretch of late fall repeats on The CW, averaging a 0.4 adults 18-49 rating for the night and 1 million viewers.  
 

Thursday, Dec. 8, Overnight Ratings:

8 p.m.
CBS: The Big Bang Theory (14.4 million viewers, 4.7 rating in adults 18-49)
Fox: The X Factor (9.9 million, 3.0)
ABC: Wipeout (6.6 million, 1.9)
NBC: Community (3.6 million, 1.5)
The CW: The Vampire Diaries (R) (1.2 million, 0.4)

8:30 p.m.
CBS: Rules of Engagement (10.9 million, 3.2)
NBC: Parks and Recreation (3.7 million, 1.7)

9 p.m.
CBS: Person of Interest (13.4 million, 3.0)
NBC: The Office (5.8 million, 2.9)
Fox: Bones (9.0 million, 2.7)
ABC: America's Funniest Home Videos (6.5 million, 1.9)
The CW: The Secret Circle (R) (873,000, 0.3)

9:30 p.m.
NBC: Whitney (4.1 million, 1.9)

10 p.m.
CBS: The Mentalist (13.8 million, 3.0)
NBC: Grimm (4.0 million, 1.6)
ABC: The Great Big American Auction (4.8 million, 1.4)