Primetime Ratings: Country Tops Hip-Hop, ABC Over Fox

The 49th Annual CMA Awards, spotlighting the best in country music, paced ABC to a 3.8 rating in viewers 18-49, according to Nielsen’s overnights, and a 12 share. That leapfrogged Fox, with a 3.0 rating and 9 share, as well as CBS’ 1.6/5, NBC’s 1.4/4 and The CW’s 0.8/3.

CMA Awards ran for three hours. Its 3.8 was off 16% from last year.

Fox’s Rosewood put up a 1.5, flat with its previous airing two weeks before (the World Series ran last Wednesday), then Empire showed a 4.6, down 4% from two weeks ago.

On CBS, Survivor scored a flat 2.0, then Criminal Minds tallied a 1.4, off 13%. Code Black went up 9% with a 1.2.

NBC featured The Mysteries of Laura, up 18% at 1.3, then Law & Order: SVU—featuring a 19 Kids and Counting-esque storyline and funnyman Chris Elliott in a creepy cameo—with a flat 1.5. Chicago P.D. did a 1.4, down 7% from last week’s two-hour episode.

The CW, meanwhile, got a 1.1 from Arrow, up 10%, while Supernatural’s 0.6 tumbled 33%.  

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.