RATINGS RECAP: 12/4/14

ABC
8:00 The Taste
Viewers: 3.3 million, 18-49 demo: 0.9
10:00 How to Get Away with Murder (Repeat)
Viewers: 2.9 million, 18-49 demo: 0.7

CBS
8:00 The Big Bang Theory (Repeat)
Viewers: 9.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.1
8:30 Mom
Viewers: 8.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.0
9:00 Two and a Half Men
Viewers: 8.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.9
9:30 The McCarthys
Viewers: 6.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.4
10:00 Elementary
Viewers: 6.6 million, 18-49 demo: 1.2

NBC
8:00 Peter Pan Live!
Viewers: 9.2 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4

FOX
8:00 Bones
Viewers: 5.7 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5
9:00 Gracepoint
Viewers: 3.6 million, 18-49 demo: 0.9

Thursday night had NBC's second major live musical after the smashing success of The Sound of Music Live last year. This year's entry, Peter Pan Live! did not go as well. While 9.2 million viewers and a 2.4 demo is well above what NBC usually does on this night, it was nothing special and not even half of the total viewers and just over half of the demo for Sound of Music. For the many reasons I listed in the rundown on Thursday, this wasn't as big a draw. The novelty is no longer there, Allison Williams and Christopher Walken were not as big draws as Carrie Underwood, and the title itself wasn't quite as exciting. NBC already has The Music Man Live on deck for next year and that will go a long way to determining if this is an annual tradition or a passing fad. If they can equal or better these numbers next year, I think NBC will be inclined to continue since they're pretty committed to "event" programming.

Elsewhere, ABC had the season premiere of The Taste and it tied a series low in the demo. This is just a cheap filler so there's not much to analyze. CBS's sitcom lineup was up across the board from Thanksgiving airings last week. However, they were still lower than what they've gotten with The Big Bang Theory being new, which is understandable. The only exception to that was The McCarthys, which matched its rating from two weeks ago. At 10pm, Elementary was only even in the demo but it's not as bad as it was in mid-November for this show. CBS announced today that Two and a Half Men will end on February 19 with a one hour finale immediately following the series premiere of the new sitcom The Odd Couple, starring Matthew Perry. After that, Odd will stay at 8:30pm while Big Bang repeats will air at 9pm leading into Mom at a new time. The McCarthys will have its episode order over by then and any further extension seems unlikely. Finally on FOX, Bones was up four tenths in viewers and two tenths in the demo for its best performance since October 16 while the penultimate episode of Gracepoint was up half a million viewers and two tenths in the demo for its best performance since October 9.

WINNER OF THE NIGHT: Bones (FOX)
LOSER OF THE NIGHT: The Taste (ABC)