If last year’s Tony Awards slumped among viewers 18-49,
last night’s show positively bombed. It was down 7 percent from
last year’s already anemic 1.5 adults 18-49 average to a 1.4 for
CBS, according to Nielsen overnights.
The show also matched last year’s worst-ever 4.6
household rating and averaged 6.62 million viewers, up slightly
versus last year’s 6.46 million. Final numbers will be released
later today.
Last night’s poor showing begs the very real question of
how much longer the Tonys will remain a broadcast event. Though CBS
last year agreed to host the awards show for six more years, it
could be below 5 million viewers by then if the trend continues.
The show hasn’t attracted more than 10 million viewers
since 1998. And there was a fair amount of buzz about last night’s
awards show, what with “Monty Python’s Spamalot” up for 14
awards.
Python is popular with younger viewers, and host Hugh
Jackman has the “X-Men” films to his credit. But no gimmicks
worked this year.
“Spamalot” won just three awards, though it did take
home the Tonys for Best Musical and Best Director (Mike Nichols, his
ninth win).
“The
Light in the Piazza,” nominated for 11 awards, won six, including
best score (Adam Guettel) and lead actress (Victoria Clark). Its
other four wins were in design and orchestration categories.
The
weakness of the awards dropped CBS to a fourth-place finish last
night among 18-49s with a 1.5 average and a 4 share. Fox and ABC
tied for first at 2.6/8, with NBC third at 1.5/4 and the WB fifth at
0.8/2.
CBS actually started primetime in the lead among 18-49s
with a 1.8 rating for “60 Minutes.” ABC was second that hour
with a 1.7 for a repeat of “Dancing With the Stars” and Fox
third with a 1.6 average for repeats of “Malcolm in the Middle”
(1.3) and “King of the Hill” (1.9).
Fox jumped into the lead at 8 p.m. with a 2.9 average for
back-to-back reruns of “The Simpsons.” ABC was second with a 2.8
average for a rerun of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and NBC
third with a 2.2 for “Dateline.”
Fox led again at 9 p.m., this time with a 3.3 average for
the combination of “Family Guy” (3.7) and “American Dad”
(3.0). ABC was second with a 3.1 for a “Desperate Housewives”
rerun and NBC third with a 2.7 for a repeat of “Law & Order:
Criminal Intent.”
ABC claimed the lead during the last hour of the night,
averaging a 2.8 for a repeat of “Grey’s Anatomy” during the 10
p.m. hour. NBC was second with a 2.6 for a repeat of “Crossing
Jordan” and CBS, with the wheels already fallen off, was third
that hour with a 1.5 average for the last hour of the Tonys.
Among
households, NBC led the night with a 5.6 average rating and a 10
share. CBS was second for the night at 5.2/9, with ABC third at
4.4/8, NBC fourth at 3.4/6 and the WB fifth at 1.2/2.
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