CBS won Wednesday’s primetime in both the key 18-49 demographic and among total viewers — this, despite the generally soft “Salvation” taking up two of its three hours.
The demo victory was solely due to “Big Brother,” which dominated at 8 p.m. To be fair to “Salvation,” the drama did top each of its 60-minute time slots among total eyeballs, duking it out with younger-skewing programming and reruns.
Fox finished second in the main demo thanks to “MasterChef”; NBC was No. 2 in overall audience members.
CBS was first in ratings with a 0.9 rating/4 share in the advertiser-coveted demographic and in total viewers with an average of 4.6 million, according to preliminary numbers. “Big Brother” at 8 earned a 1.9/8 and 6.5 million viewers. The first hour of “Salvation” at 9 managed a 0.5/2 and 3.8 million viewers. A second hour slipped to a 0.4/2 and 3.5 million viewers.
Fox was second in ratings with a 0.8/4 and third in viewers with 2.8 million. “MasterChef” at 8 posted a 1.0/5 and 3.7 million viewers. At 9, “The F Word” had a a 0.6/2 and 1.9 million viewers.
NBC was third in ratings with a 0.7/3 and in viewers with 3.4 million. Between reruns, “The Carmichael Show” at 9 got a 0.7/3 and 3 million viewers.
ABC and Telemundo tied for fourth in ratings, both with a 0.63. ABC was fourth in viewers with 2.6 million, airing all repeats; Telemundo was fifth with 1.6 million.
Univision was sixth in ratings with a 0.5/2 and in viewers with 1.4 million.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.2/1 and in viewers with 670,000, running just reruns.