RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Rising Star’ & ‘Wipeout’ Fall, ‘Big Brother’ Steady, ‘Reckless’ Rises

It was a half-and-half night among the Big 4 in primetime Sunday. CBS and ABC were almost all originals, while NBC and Fox were all encores. For Big Brother (2.1/8), that literally meant a bit of chess match among the usual housemate intrigue. Although the fourth Sunday broadcast of Season 16 of the vet reality show dipped 5% among adults 18-49 from last week, preliminary ratings have BB as the top-rated show of the night and, with 6.38 million tuning in, the night’s second-most-watched show — following the audience of 7.72 million for a repeat of 60 Minutes (0.9/4) that started the night. New episodes of Unforgettable (1.0/3) and freshman Reckless (0.6/2) followed BB to round out the night. Last night saw another double-digit rise for the Poppy Montgomery starrer as it grew 11% from its July 13 show. The latter took an even bigger jump with a 20% rise from last week, when it was flat with the week before. CBS topped the night in18-49 with a 1.1/4 rating and in total viewers with 6.147 million watching.

Even though it was all repeats, Fox was second in ratings (1.0/4) while ABC was No. 2 in viewers with 4.073 million. With a 1.5/5 rating, Fox’s 9 PM Family Guy encore was the night’s second-highest-rated show. (more…)