Thursday Ratings: Rising ‘Big Bang Theory,’ ‘Mom’ Lift CBS; ABC’s ‘Scandal’ Up Too

CBS won Thursday’s primetime ratings race in key demos behind “The Big Bang Theory” and “Mom,” with the latter looking pretty good in its new time period, while ABC saw “Scandal” bounce back from a string of lows opposite a repeat of drama rival “The Blacklist.”

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, “The Big Bang Theory” (3.7 rating/15 share in adults 18-49, 14.5 million viewers overall) was easily Thursday’s No. 1 show as it continued its rise since hitting a season low following a two-week hiatus last month; it’s expected to rise to at least a 3.8 and possibly a 3.9 in the nationals. It was followed by “The Odd Couple” (2.2/8 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall), which was up a tenth from last week’s pending updates and led its timeslot in 18-49 (tie), 25-54 and total viewers.

The Eye has to be pleased by the 9 p.m. performance of “Mom” (2.2/7 in 18-49, 9.7 million viewers overall), which was up 0.2 from last week and placed a close second to “Scandal” in 18-49; this is the first time CBS has done as well at 9 p.m. (with either “Mom” or a “Big Bang Theory” repeat) as it did at 8:30. It was followed by a “Big Bang” repeat at 9:30 (1.9/6 in 18-49, 8.6 million viewers overall) and “Elementary” (1.4/5 in 18-49, 7.4 million viewers overall), with the latter up 0.2 from last week and winning its hour among the broadcast networks.

ABC, which was second to CBS in most broad categories and first in adults 18-34 and female demos, had another good outing at 8 p.m. by “Grey’s Anatomy” (2.1/8 in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall), which matched its special 9 p.m. airing of last week and was up two tenths from its most recent regular-timeslot outing. “Scandal” (2.4/8 in 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall), which had been falling just about every week of late, bounced back by 0.3 to win its hour in 18-49. And that seemed to help “American Crime” (1.1/4 in 18-49, 4.4 million viewers overall), which was up 0.2.

At NBC, encores of “Law & Order: SVU” (0.7/3 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall) and “The Blacklist” (0.7/2 in 18-49, 3.3 million viewers overall) led into “Dateline” (1.1/4 in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall), which tied with ABC’s “American Crime” in 18-49 and logged the timeslot’s best scores in both adults 25-54 (1.6/5) and total viewers since the Jan. 29 series finale of “Parenthood.”

It was a pretty quiet night for the dramas on Fox, with “Bones” (1.0/4 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall) and “Backstrom” (0.7/2 in 18-49, 3.4 million viewers overall) down a tenth to their lows. Similarly, CW’s “The Vampire Diaries” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.3 million viewers overall) matched its low in its first original in over a month, and “Reign” remained at its tiny levels (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.0 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 2.1/7; ABC, 1.9/6; Fox and Univision, 0.9/3; NBC, 0.8/3; Telemundo, 0.6/2; CW, 0.5/2.

In total viewers: CBS, 9.6 million; ABC, 6.6 million; NBC, 4.2 million; Univision, 2.5 million; Fox, 4.1 million; Telemundo, 1.4 million; CW, 1.2 million.

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