Thanksgiving Week TV: Nothing Beats Football, Except Santa Claus
by EG
Forget the hottest new series; over the Thanksgiving week TV viewers wanted to see old favorites. The holiday week was littered with reruns and holiday specials, but even the most popular current shows had trouble keeping up with football and country music.
It all started last Sunday, when viewers had a choice between a new episode of "The Walking Dead," Miley Cyrus performing with cute kittens on The American Music Awards show, and an NFL game. By a huge margin, viewers chose to watch the game, in which the Denver Broncos lost in overtime to the New England Patriots.
The trend continued on Thanksgiving night, when an NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens drew about nine times as many viewers as both the "Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular" and a new episode of "Glee."
On Friday, there was no football on the schedule, but there was Garth Brooks. The singer's "Live from Las Vegas" concert special beat "Grimm" and two new episodes of "Raising Hope," but Brooks only pulled a 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Presumably all the young people were out seeing "Catching Fire" instead of staying home and watching TV.
Football's reign ended on Saturday, however, when two college football games with disproportionate California representation—Stanford vs. Notre Dame and UCLA vs. USC—failed to outperform reruns of "The Flight Before Christmas" and "The Story of Santa Claus."