CBS Takes Its First Ratings Win Over Fox And ABC Wednesday Night

It’s a bad night for ABC when ratings are down for the network’s juggernaut comedy, Modern Family. As this week’s ratings will show, a loss for ABC is apparently a win for CBS. In the face of X Factor and other stiff competition, CBS sneaking through with the Wednesday ratings win just proves how dominant CBS can be if another network slips up even a little.

ABC still did decently well Wednesday night, bringing decent 18-49 ratings for its lead-in programs The Middle (2.8) and Suburgatory (2.8). Modern Family still garnered a whopping 5.0 rating for the evening, but, according to THR, with Happy Endings and Revenge ratings also below average, ABC did not win the night. CBS pulled in plenty of overall viewers, but its 18-49 ratings for Survivor: South Pacific (3.3) and Criminal Minds (3.4) just barely allowed them to pull through with the win for the evening. I can image the tenuous victory would have been better if it had come at a bit more of a landslide.

Really, the real loser here is Fox. No one expected NBC and Up All Night (1.4) to just randomly generate three to four time’s its number of viewers. However, Fox’s Wednesday night is dominated by The X Factor, which does well in the 18-49 demographic and really could have shone in the ratings this week. Maybe people are angry because Drew was sent home last week, maybe people are sick of the judge’s infighting, and maybe people have given up on host Steve Jones. There’s a whole list of things that could have gone wrong for The X Factor last night, including random chance, but the numbers were down, faltering 11% in the 18-49 demographic. If the show had managed to maintain its 18-49 demographic base for the week, it could have been a good week for Fox, who could use a ratings win to prove The X Factor has the chops to really compete.

Overall, it was a fairly rotten Wednesday. Let's hope ratings are looking up for Thursday night.