ABC's 'The Taste' Dominated The Ratings, 'Parenthood' Closes Strong

Since I previously bashed on the title, I guess I should also report the good news for ABC...  In what I thought was a surprise result, ABC's new reality TV series, called The Taste premiered at the no. 1 spot in the prime demographic ratings.  It pulled in a 2.2/6, or in English, about 6 million viewers.

So prepare thyself for the marketing buzz from ABC, because they are going to eat that ratings win up and spit it back in your face! 

What I'm sure they might not mention in the ads is that the series premiere was up against a repeat of NCIS.  In the demographic of 18-49 year-old viewers, it was a 2.2 vs NCIS's 1.7.  But in total viewers, NCIS's repeat still pulled in almost 13 million viewers.

Other shows on at 8 was Raising Hope, Off Their Rockers and Hart of Dixie.

Parenthood's season finale (which I haven't seen yet) pulled in 4.8 million viewers, and it's 1.7/5 demo numbers, was down 11 percent from last year's finale and last week's episode.  But to be honest, cancer story lines are scary things to watch.  Especially if you've been exposed to something like that in one way or the other.  They're either very hard to watch, or pull you in very hard.

But some folk in the industry are surmising that Parenthood's numbers were hurt by the series finale of Private Practice.  (1.5, 5.2M viewers).

All these numbers reported by TV By The Numbers, represent overnight numbers only.

Comments