Thursday Ratings: NFL Action Dominates Baseball Playoffs – Variety

UPDATED WITH FINALS/CABLE: Sports dominated the primetime landscape on Wednesday, with a deciding game of the Mets-Dodgers series on TBS and NFL action on CBS and NFL Network drawing most of the live viewership and sending shows like including Fox’s “Bones,” “NBC’s “The Blacklist” and ABC’s “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” to season lows.

According to national estimates from Nielsen, CBS and NFL Network’s “Thursday Night Football” matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints averaged a combined 4.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 14.78 million viewers overall on the networks— a bit below last week’s averages and the lowest of this football season for “TNF.” CBS accounted for 82% of the total viewership 77% of the adults 18-49 audience.

Over at TBS, the New York Mets’ 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers averaged a 2.1 rating in adults 18-49 and 7.38 million viewers overall. This is the highest-rated game of the League Divisional Series round, but comes in a little below this year’s two wild-card round games. And last night’s result far exceeds the peak ratings of the LDS round last year, which was a 1.2 in 18-49 and 4.35 million viewers overall. This year’s American League Championship Series between Toronto and Kansas City begins tonight on Fox, while TBS will have the National League Championship Series between the Mets and Chicago Cubs starting tomorrow night.

On the entertainment front, ABC’s lineup overall shed some more viewers in their fourth week, though “Grey’s Anatomy” continues to impress in its 12th season (2.3/8 in 18-49, 8.25 million viewers overall), up a tick from last week. “Scandal” (2.4/7 in 18-49, 8.06 million viewers overall) and “How to Get Away With Murder” (2.0/7 in 18-49, 6.81 million viewers overall) were down 0.2 apiece, with the latter setting its series low.

At NBC, “Heroes Reborn” (1.1/4 in 18-49, 4.01 million viewers overall) was down a tenth from last week to its lowest scores to date, and “The Blacklist” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 6.93 million viewers overall) was also down a tick to its season low, though it held 97% of its week-ago total-viewer count. According to NBC, last week’s “Heroes” added nearly 900,000 full-episode views in seven days on NBC.com and Hulu, and “The Blacklist” attracted nearly 400,000.

Capping the night for NBC, “The Player” (0.7/2 in 18-49, 3.99 million viewers overall) was down 0.2 to its low. The 0.7 ties with the last two weeks of Fox’s “Minority Report” as the lowest-rated first-year series telecasts on the Big Four this fall.

The CW had the best night relative to last week, with “The Vampire Diaries” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.40 million viewers overall) holding steady and “The Originals” (0.5/2 in 18-49, 1.12 million viewers overall) up a tenth. In 18-34, “The Originals” tied with Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow” (0.5). “Hollow” (0.8/3 in 18-49, 2.97 million viewers overall) and its lead-in “Bones” (1.1/4 in 18-49, 5.79 million viewers overall) both lost two tenths from last week.