'Dance' puts Fox in ratings spotlight

CBS in tune with George Strait

By STUART LEVINE

Fox won the Wednesday ratings race behind an effort of “So You Think You Can Dance” that marginally increased its 18-49 demo over the season premiere last Thursday. CBS came in second, supported by a two-hour George Strait concert that grew in both total viewers and the demo every half hour.

ABC’s premiere of “Wipeout” was down from last year’s first episode, but the Alphabet’s summer reality series had the difficult task of going up against ESPN’s Lakers-Denver playoff game in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, and both covet male viewers. The basketball game earned a 7.0 in the overall metered market. Total viewers will be available later today.

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, “Dance” (3.5 rating/10 share in the 18-49 demo, 8.5 million viewers) easily took the 9 o’clock hour but fell to “Wipeout” (3.2/10, 8.6m) at 8. ABC should be happy with the “Wipeout” launch as it produced the best 8 p.m. summer demos and total viewers for the network since July 2005.

The George Strait concert (2.2/6, 10.6m) was the most-watched show Wednesday, though it was third in the demo. Not surprising considering the Grammy-winning Strait, a country music standout, is 57 years old, possibly putting him out of context with those on the young end of the demo.

The Alphabet paired the premiere of animated skein “The Goode Family” (1.6/5, 3.9m) with “Surviving Suburbia” (1.0/3, 2.8m) and began finishing its run of “The Unusuals” (1.2/3, 3.9m) at 10. A repeat of “Criminal Minds” (2.0/6, 8.9m) won the timeslot over NBC’s repeat of “Law & Order” (1.8/5, 6.4m).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 3.5/10; CBS, 2.1/6; ABC, 1.9/5; NBC, 1.5/4; Univision, 1.5/4; CW, 0.5/1.

In total viewers: CBS, 10 million; Fox, 8.5 million; NBC, 6 million; ABC, 5.3 million; Univision, 3.7 million, CW, 1.1 million.