The 46th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards propelled CBS to a ratings win on Sunday night. The show, which featured a duet with Carrie Underwood and Steven Tyler, averaged a 3.3 rating in the 18-40 demographic with 13 million viewers from 8-11 p.m. The show did not post a significant gain year-to-year with a 3 percent uptick.
ABC (2.2, 8.3 million) was second on for the night with new episodes of its Sunday lineup including Secret Millionaire (2.6, 9.7 million), Desperate Housewives (2.8, 8.8 million) and Body of Proof (2.0, 8.4 million). Millionaire was down slightly (4 percent) week-to-week. Desperate was off 18 percent and Body of Proof was down 35 percent compared to last week’s premiere. Some erosion for Proof, which stars Dana Delany as a medical examiner, was expected since the new drama got a big boost from Dancing With the Stars last week. But Proof also lost 29 percent of its Desperate lead-in and was third in the time slot behind CBS and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice (3.3, 9.1 million), which tied in the hour in the demo.
NBC averaged a 2.1 rating for the night with 6.5 million viewers. Dateline (1.0, 5.1 million) was up 67 percent compared to last week’s NCAA Basketball decimated installment. America’s Next Great Restaurant (1.4, 3.9 million) was up 8 percent.
Fox averaged a 1.8 rating with 4.0 million viewers with a mix of reruns and originals for its animated lineup. American Dad (1.6, 3.5 million) and The Cleveland Show (2.2, 4.8 million) were both down double digits with rerun lead-ins.
