“Big Brother” came in hot in Nielsen ratings Thursday night with Julie Chen’s return to TV. Sorry, Julie Chen Moonves’ return.
After passing on joining her co-hosts on “The Talk” earlier this week, Chen hosted the CBS reality series during primetime last night, marking her first on-screen appearance since her husband, former CBS chief Les Moonves, was ousted from the network over multiple sexual misconduct accusations.
“Big Brother” rose in both the all-important adults 18-49 range and total viewers over the same time last week, handing both the program and the network an overall win in both measures.
Elsewhere, ABC’s “Take Two” and “Match Game” grew in their respective finales, with freshman series “Take Two” tying its high in the key 18-49 demo and total viewers, and “Match Game” marking a new personal best for the summer in both measures.
CBS was first in ratings with a 1.2 rating/5.3 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 5.3 million, according to preliminary numbers. “Big Brother” was sandwiched in between reruns at 9 p.m.
ABC was second in ratings with a 0.7/3 and in viewers with 4.2 million. Following an encore, the “Match Game” finale at 9 p.m. had a 0.8/3 and 4.3 million viewers. At 10, “Take Two” settled for a 0.5/2 and 2.2 million viewers.
NBC, Fox and Telemundo tied for third in ratings with a 0.5/2.
NBC was third in viewers with 2.2 million, filling its block with repeats.
Fox was fourth in viewers with 1.7 million, also airing only encores.
Telemundo was fifth in viewers with 1.5 million.
Univision was sixth in ratings with a 0.4/2 and in viewers with 1.2 million.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1/1 and in viewers with 634,000, with its primetime lineup comprised of reruns.