It turns out Mariah Carey’s disastrous New Year’s Eve performance last year may have been the best thing to happen to the singer this New Year’s Eve — or at least to ABC’s ratings.
Huge Nielsen numbers out of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” carried the Disney-owned network to No. 1 in ratings for the last night of 2017. The Ryan Seacrest-hosted special included performances by A-list artists like Nick Jonas, Camila Cabello and Sugarland — and, of course, that do-over from Carey. Year over year, the annual ABC celebration skyrocketed up 63 percent among adults 18-49 and 59 percent in terms of total viewers.
ABC was first in ratings with a 3.0 rating/12 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 10.5 million, according to preliminary numbers. Following a repeat of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” part 1 of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” posted a 3.1/13 and 10.5 million viewers from 8-10. From 10 – 11, part 2 hit a 5.0/20 and 15.7 million viewers.
Though many viewers tuned in to see if Carey would stick the landing this time (which she did), a decent number opted for “Fox’s New Year’s Eve With Steve Harvey” instead.
Fox was second in ratings with a 2.3/10 and in viewers with 8 million. Following on overrun of an afternoon NFL matchup and postgame show “The OT,” Harvey’s first NYE gig grabbed a 1.8/8 and 5.8 million viewers from 8-10. After an hour break for local news on Fox affiliate channels, the special hit a 2.9 rating and 8.5 million viewers from 11 p.m.-12:19 a.m.
The network’s last few ball drops have featured “Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution” Miami-based special. This year, Fox brought in the Miss Universe host to lead their broadcast in Time Square, which featured performances by Jamie Foxx, Celine Dion, the Backstreet Boys, Maroon 5, Zac Brown, Neil Diamond and Rob Riggle. Oh, and Maria Menounos had a surprise wedding on live TV.
CBS came in third with a 1.4/6 and in viewers with 7.1 million. After an NFL overrun, the network’s primetime was full of repeats.
NBC was fourth in ratings with a 0.6/2 and in viewers with 3.5 million. Because the Peacock’s final “Sunday Night Football” game of the year was scrapped earlier in the week, the network stacked it’s New Year’s Eve lineup with reruns.
The CW doesn’t broadcast nationally on Sunday nights.
Univision did not provide Nielsen ratings for “Feliz 2018!” for Dec. 31.