‘Charlie Brown’ Ratings Lead Friday; ‘Midnight, Texas’ Hits Season Viewer High Amid Cancellation News

ABC’s holiday perennial I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown! (0.7 rating in the 18-49 demo, 3.42 million viewers) was Friday’s top-rated show in primetime, topping a night of few original programs, though one, NBC’s just-canceled Midnight, Texas (0.4, 2.60M) hit another season high in total viewers.

CBS led the night overall in total viewers with its own holiday special, A Home for the Holidays 20th Anniversary (0.5, 3.47M), which won the 8 PM time slot in total viewers and was second in the demo along with a Last Man Standing repeat on Fox. CBS also aired repeats of Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods.

Also at 8 PM, Midnight, Texas was even in the demo but grew in viewers for a third week in a row. The current second season will be the final one for the supernatural drama; Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva reports the show is being shopped to other networks. NBC on Friday night also canceled summer series Marlon.

NBC, CBS and ABC all had identical 0.5/2 ratings Friday in the early Nielsen numbers for a three-way tie in the demo derby. Fox, which aired all repeats, was a tick behind in fourth with a 0.4/2.

The only other original was the CW’s Dynasty (0.1, 680,000), back from a one-week break down a tenth from its last episode. The network averaged 700K viewers and a 0.1/1 rating overall.