TV Ratings: ‘Undercover Boss’ Returns Down But Boosts CBS

Undercover Boss

2012 Studio Lambert

"Undercover Boss"

Topping the night with adults 18-49 (1.5 rating) and averaging 5.9 million viewers, ABC kicked off Friday with both Last Man Standing (1.3 adults) and Malibu Country (1.1 adults) off a tenth of a point from their last originals. Shark Tank (1.8 adults), the night's best in the demo, held last week's score, while 20/20 (1.4 adults) was off a tenth of a point at 10 p.m.

Undercover Boss (1.5 adults) made a welcome return to CBS -- boosting the network's 8 p.m. hour by nearly a full point from the low-rated Job, pulled from the schedule after two episodes, but four tenths of a point short of its last original. The season finale of CSI: NY (1.2 adults) was even with the previous original. Blue Bloods (1.4 adults) was also steady, giving the network an average 1.4 rating with adults 18-49 and a dominant 9.3 million viewers.

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NBC's news block saw Dateline (1.4 adults) up a tenth of a point from the previous week, while Rock Center With Brian Williams (1.0 adults) lost a tenth of a point. The network averaged 1.3 rating with 18-49-ers and 5.6 million viewers.

Both Kitchen Nightmares (1.1 adults) and Touch (0.7 adults) were even with last week's showings on Fox, giving the network an average 0.9 adults rating and 2.8 million viewers.  

A new Nikita (0.3 adults) dropped two tenths of a point on the CW before the network encored this week's Cult premiere (0.2 adults). The CW averaged a 0.3 adults rating and 949,000 viewers.

Michael O'Connell