TV Ratings: Preseason Football Boosts ‘Big Brother,’ ‘Motive’

Preseason football helped boost the ratings on Thursday.

ABC, NBC, Fox and The CW had numerous pre-emptions due to NFL preseason football matchups, with CBS programming pre-empted in 40 percent of the country, fast nationals are significantly higher than usual and subject to change when finals come in.

At this moment, CBS is tops in primetime for Thursday in both total viewers (7.2 million) and in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demo (2.0).

Football boosted CBS' Big Brother (8.4 million, 2.6) significantly, about 24 percent in the adult demo from last week's comparable eviction episode.

The season finale of ABC's Motive (6.3 million, 1.3) also improved drastically, about 40 percent, from the previous week. Rookie Blue (6 million, 1.5) notably jumped 36 percent in week-to-week comparisons, likely thanks to football.

NBC's Hollywood Game Night (4.8 million, 1.5) original improved 25 percent at 10 p.m. following two hours of encores.

For now, total viewers rankings look like this: CBS (7.2 million), ABC (6.3 million), NBC (4.9 million), Fox (4.5 million), Univision (3.4 million), Telemundo (1.3 million) and The CW (1.1 million).

Here's how the 18-49 rankings look at the moment: CBS (2.), NBC (1.5), a tie between Fox and ABC (1.4), Univision (1.3), Telemundo (0.5) and The CW (0.4).