TV ratings: CMA Music Festival earns ABC No. 1 spot in key demographic

ABC’s telecast of the Country Music Awards Music Festival helped rock TV ratings on Tuesday night but fell short of last year’s ratings, according to Nielsen.

With a rating of 1.8 in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic, the three-hour special “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” made ABC the most watched network of the night in the desired category.

However, the telecast was down 10% from last year, when it earned a rating of 2.0 in the same category.

Roughly 7.1 million people tuned in to watch footage from June’s four-day CMA Music Festival, which featured performances by Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, the Band Perry and other country music stars.

NBC, which drew about 7.3 million viewers, was the most watched network of the night.

The network, which posted a 1.7 rating in the key demo, aired episodes of “America’s Got Talent” and “Food Fighters.”

More than 8.9 million people watched “America’s Got Talent,” which earned a rating of 2.0 in the key demo. Despite being down 17% from last week, tying its series low in the live plus same day ratings, the show was the most viewed in the key demo and overall.

“Food Fighters,” the culinary competition show hosted by Adam Richman, was down 8% from last week’s episode, with a rating of 1.2 in the key demo. Roughly 4.3 million peopled tuned in this week.

Spanish-language network Univision was the third-most watched network of the night in the key demo, with a rating of 1.4. The network aired episodes of the telenovas “Lo Que la Vida Me Robo” and “Mi Corazon es Tuyo.”

On CBS, “NCIS” was the second-most watched show of the night with roughly 7.7 million viewers. The network was the third-most watched overall with 5.8 million viewers.

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