RATINGS RECAP: 4/5/15

ABC
7:00 Movie: The Ten Commandments
Viewers: 6.9 million, 18-49 demo: 1.4

CBS
7:00 60 Minutes
Viewers: 8.0 million, 18-49 demo: 1.0
8:00 Madam Secretary
Viewers: 9.3 million, 18-49 demo: 1.1
9:00 The Good Wife
Viewers: 7.8 million, 18-49 demo: 1.0
10:00 Battle Creek
Viewers: 5.6 million, 18-49 demo: 0.7

NBC
7:00 Dateline NBC
Viewers: 4.2 million, 18-49 demo: 0.9
9:00 A.D. The Bible Continues
Viewers: 9.7 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
10:00 American Odyssey
Viewers: 5.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.1

FOX
7:00 The Simpsons (Repeat)
Viewers: 1.4 million, 18-49 demo: 0.4
7:30 Bob's Burgers (Repeat)
Viewers: 1.6 million, 18-49 demo: 0.6
8:00 The Simpsons (Repeat)
Viewers: 2.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.0
8:30 Family Guy (Repeat)
Viewers: 2.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.1
9:00 The Last Man on Earth (Repeat)
Viewers: 2.1 million, 18-49 demo: 0.8
9:30 The Last Man on Earth (Repeat)
Viewers: 1.9 million, 18-49 demo: 0.7

Easter Sunday had two new series premieres on NBC. That might seem ill-advised but the reason was one of the two series was the biblical mini-series A.D.: The Bible Continues. While it eclipsed State of Affairs as the best drama premiere of the year for NBC, it didn't come close to the numbers its predecessor, History Channel's The Bible received. This is not a bad showing by any means but I do think it's underwhelming. On Easter, it should have been a big draw for families and had the potential to really have a huge opening. I wonder if NBC should have considered launching it on Palm Sunday instead of the busier Easter night. While A.D. was at least decent, the series premiere that followed - American Odyssey was yet another swing and miss for NBC, In a year where State of Affairs and Allegiance have been bombs, American Odyssey was yet another conspiracy thriller flop for NBC. It lost more than half of the A.D. audience and was well below last year's spring Crisis premiere.

A.D. had some competition for the religious crowd from ABC's annual airing of the classic movie The Ten Commandments. Returning to Sunday for the first time in over a decade, it was up from its recent Saturday airings. CBS was left in the dust. At 7pm, 60 Minutes was down huge from last week's basketball-infused edition. At 8pm, Madam Secretary was down a rough 2.2 million viewers and three tenths in the demo. The viewer total is easily a series low while the demo ties one. Same deal for The Good Wife, which was down 1.1 million viewers and even in the demo and Battle Creek, which was down four tenths in viewers and a tenth in the demo. We all knew it was going to be tough for CBS on Sundays in the spring but this is getting pretty depressing.

WINNER OF THE NIGHT: A.D. The Bible Continues (NBC)
LOSER OF THE NIGHT: Battle Creek (CBS)