NBC dominated Thursday’s ratings, but its annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular special was down from a year ago.
The two-hour special averaged a 0.9 rating among adults 18-49 and 5.89 million viewers, down from 1.2 and 7.4 million a year ago. It peaked in its final half-hour with the actual fireworks display, drawing a 1.4 in the 18-49 demographic and 8.9 million viewers from 9:30-10 p.m.
The special was the least-watched Fireworks Spectacular since 2015, when July 4 fell on a Saturday and the special averaged 5 million viewers (along with a 1.0 in the 18-49 demo).
Despite the year-to-year declines, NBC’s special was easily the top show on the broadcast networks on a very rerun-heavy night. The evening’s No. 2 program, in fact, was a shortened replay of the Fireworks Spectacular at 10 p.m. It scored a 0.8 in adults 18-49 and 4.3 million viewers.
The night’s only other original was Elementary on CBS, which delivered 2.94 million viewers and 0.3 in the 18-49 demo.
NBC’s 0.9 rating in adults 18-49 easily led the night. ABC, CBS and Fox all averaged 0.3, and The CW trailed at 0.1.
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