Monday night was kind of mess on broadcast TV, as a very special episode of The Apprentice: White House broke into primetime to announce President Donald Trump’s pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. But while there’s still a bit of a wait for adjusted numbers, it seems clear that ABC will emerge as the night’s leader across the board.
For that, the network can thank dominant coverage of the special report on nominee Brett Kavanaugh and, more importantly, a bisected episode of The Bachelorette. The two-hour series looks like it averaged a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 and 5.6 million viewers, nightly bests by both counts. It also may have lifted The Proposal, which saw a bump with a bit of Bachelorette overage at 10 p.m.
No. 2 status, which was quite distant, went to NBC. The network had a steady episode of American Ninja Warrior (0.9 adults), coverage of the presidential address and Dateline NBC (0.7 adults).
News coverage and an original Salvation (0.3 adults) were all CBS had to offer.
Fox saw a small lift for So You Think You Can Dance, which earned a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49.
The CW, which did not air the announcement, posted steady episodes of both Penn & Teller: Fool Us (0.3 adults) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.3 adults).
