RATINGS RECAP: 3/31/14

ABC 
8:00 Dancing with the Stars
Viewers: 14.1 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
10:00 Castle (Repeat)
Viewers: 7.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.1

CBS
8:00 How I Met Your Mother
Viewers: 13.1 million, 18-49 demo: 5.4
9:00 Friends with Better Lives
Viewers: 7.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.6
9:30 Mom
Viewers: 7.3 million, 18-49 demo: 2.2
10:00 Intelligence
Viewers: 5.6 million, 18-49 demo: 1.2

NBC
8:00 The Voice
Viewers: 12.3 million, 18-49 demo: 3.4
10:00 The Blacklist
Viewers: 11.4 million, 18-49 demo: 2.8 

FOX 
8:00 Bones
Viewers: 5.7 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5
9:00 The Following
Viewers: 4.2 million, 18-49 demo: 1.4

Monday night had the series finale of How I Met Your Mother on CBS after nine seasons. The finale shot up 4.1 million viewers and 1.9 demo points for a series high. While this was an awesome number for the finale, the days of "event finales" like Cheers, Seinfeld, and Friends are over. How I Met Your Mother had a remarkably steady run in its nine years which is impressive when you consider how much overall numbers have declined on broadcast TV. That's how it went from being a bubble show to one of TV's top draws. CBS will definitely miss this show on Mondays. They used the finale to premiere the new Friends with Better Lives at 9pm but the results were not overly promising as retention was just above 50%. Considering this was a pilot and the lead-in was mammoth, it should have had a much better sampling. This might drop like a rock when it has to follow 2 Broke Girls. At 9:30pm, Mom was down a tenth in viewers but up three tenths in the demo. At 10pm, the season (and most likely series) finale of Intelligence was up six tenths in viewers and a tenth in the demo. Person of Interest repeats will fill the Monday 10pm slot for the rest of the season.
 

The competition was not really hurt by CBS. On NBC, The Voice was hurt the most as it fell six tenths in viewers and three tenths in the demo. At 10pm, The Blacklist was up six tenths in viewers and even in the demo as it had very little competition in the 10pm hour. On ABC, Dancing with the Stars was down six tenths in viewers and even in the demo as it held up well against lots of competition. On FOX, Bones was down a tenth in viewers and actually up a tenth in the demo despite direct competition with Mother. Still it's not doing as well as it was on Friday, believe it or not. At 9pm, The Following was up a tenth in viewers and even in the demo.