Caitlyn Jenner & ESPY Awards Ratings Top Night, ‘Extant’ Shifts Slot After Hitting Low

Emmy nominations may have dominated this morning but on primetime last night it was all about the athletes and one Gold Medalist in particular on ABC. To that end, Wednesday was also a series low for Extant (0.6/2), which is undoubtedly why after the final ratings came out CBS decided today to shift the show. The Halle Berry starrer will now follow the Wednesday ratings heavyweight of Big Brother (2.0/8) starting next week. Extant has been preceded by a Criminal Minds repeat so far this season and it has not been doing the show any favors for the most part. When it debuted last summer, Extant was behind BB but then flipped with Criminal Minds to 10 PM three weeks in for the rest of the season. Now it going back to where it started, so to speak – will the result be different than the struggle Extant had early on in its first season is the question?

Now back to that Gold Medalist.

With Abby Wambach of the victorious FIFA Women’s World Cup TeamUSA there, Caitlyn Jenner took the ESPY Awards (2.2/8) stage in downtown LA to accept the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Usually an ESPN affair, this year’s ceremony was shown in primetime by ABC. And, with all the star power on the field from the world of Hollywood and sports plus Jenner, it was a winner for the network.

Up 100% among adults 18-49 from the 2014 ESPN-only telecast, the 8 – 11 PM ESPYs were the top rated and most watched (7.75 million) show on the Big 4 last night. Those final numbers are pretty much what the ceremony pulled in this morning in fast nationals. Those numbers also mean that Jenner is still a massive draw for viewers, as ABC was betting, and the net won the night among the demo and total viewers.

CBS was the second most watched network of the night with originals of Big Brother and Extant. Continuing its ratings roller coaster ride, the sci-fi show went down double digits this week. It was a 25% drop to hit an all-time low for Extant. That’s probably why CBS has decided today to permanently flip Extant and the Criminal Minds encore as of July 22, moving the former to 9 PM. That means Extant will now follow Big Brother. A strong pillar on Wednesdays and usually the top rated and most watched show of the night, yesterday’s Big Brother was even with last week despite the increased competition of the ESPYs.

That wasn’t quite the case for MasterChef (1.5/6) last night with an 11% decline from its July 9 show. Lead-out Bullseye took less of a hit, with just a 5% dip from last week.

NBC and The CW were all encores on Thursday.