Primetime Network TV Show Ratings: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 [finals]

You can bet that ABC programmers wished that the Country Music Awards were held each week. Not only was the three hour special the big winner for the night, almost all of the shows on the other networks were down.

The biggest loser of the night was the 8pm edition of Hell’s Kitchen. The reality series lost more than 26% of its audience in the 18-49 demographic, when compared to the last original installment. The 9pm episode dropped almost 18%.

The Defenders on CBS dropped nearly 22% in the demo, representing a series low for the legal show. Criminal Minds lost more than 20% of the 18-49 audience. The 3.1 rating is one of the lowest ratings in the show’s six season history. It hit a 3.0 rating back in February 2009.

The best news of the night for regular series came from The CW. While America’s Next Top Model was down in the 18-49 demo, the reality show was up 9.5% in the network’s target audience of women 18-34. Hellcats was the only series that didn’t register losses and actually gained nearly 31% among young women viewers with a 1.7 rating.

		TV show	Viewers (mil)	18-49 demo	Demo +/- %
8:00	fox	Glee	10.99	4.6/13	-6.1%
8:00	cbs	NCIS	19.87	4.0/11	-2.4%
8:00	nbc	The Biggest Loser (two hours)	6.75	2.4/7	0.0%
8:00	abc	No Ordinary Family	7.88	2.2/6	+10.0%
8:00	cw	One Tree Hill	1.70	0.8/2	-20%
9:00	cbs	NCIS: Los Angeles	19.87	4.0/11	+17.6%
9:00	abc	Dancing with the Stars: The Results	16.96	3.4/9	+25.0%
9:00	fox	Raising Hope	5.77	2.5/7	+13.6%
9:00	cw	Life Unexpected	1.48	0.7/2	0.0%
9:30	fox	Running Wilde	2.83	1.3/3	+18.2%
10:00	cbs	The Good Wife	12.33	2.2/7	-8.3%
10:00	nbc	Parenthood	5.00	2.1/6	+5.0%
10:00	abc	Detroit 1-8-7	7.55	1.7/5	-10.5%

Raw data: © The Nielsen Company via Media Week. The “Demo +/-%” column indicates how many viewers in the 18-49 demographic (the important category to most advertisers) watched over those that watched the last original episode.

What do you think? Did you watch the CMA instead of what you usually watch on Wednesday nights? Do you think the CMA accounted for so many shows being down in the ratings? What did you watch?