TV Ratings: 'Big Bang,' 'Mentalist' repeats lead CBS Thursday

FOX's 'Bones' repeats finish second

<p>&nbsp;Simon Baker of &quot;The Mentalist&quot;</p>

 Simon Baker of "The Mentalist"

Credit: CBS
Fast National ratings for Thursday, December 29, 2011.
We're only a few days away from the return of new TV programming, but for now the nightly results remain pretty consistent: CBS' repeats beat repeats for all other networks. In this case, for Thursday night, that was true for repeats of "The Big Bang Theory," "Person of Interest" and "The Mentalist."
Among adults 18-49, CBS averaged a 2.0 rating for the night, far ahead of the 1.1 rating for FOX in the key demographic. ABC's 0.9 rating and the 0.8 rating for NBC followed, still topping The CW's 0.3 rating in the key demo.
Overall, CBS averaged an estimated 8.79 million viewers to go with a 5.6 rating/9 share in Thursday primetime. FOX was a distant second with 4.83 million viewers and a 3.2/5, well in front of ABC's 3.38 million viewers and 2.3/4 and NBC's 1.5/2 and 2.15 million viewers. The CW averaged a 0.6/1 and 901,000 viewers for Thursday.
[Univision continued its strong week against the networks by averaging a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.53 million viewers, good for second in the key demo and third overall.]
8 p.m. - CBS' 8 p.m. repeat of "The Big Bang Theory" was Thursday's top show with 10.19 million viewers and a 2.8 rating among adults 18-49, leading into the 7.84 million viewers and a 2.2 key demo rating fora  repeat of "Rules of Engagement." FOX's repeat of "Bones" averaged 4.86 million viewers for second overall and a 1.0 rating for third in the key demo. ABC's "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown" averaged 4.2 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo rating. NBC was fourth with repeats of "Community" (2.24 million viewers and a 0.6 key demo rating) and "Parks and Recreation" (1.97 million viewers and a 0.7 key demo). The CW's repeat of "The Vampire Diaries" averaged 967,000 viewers and a 0.3 key demo rating.
9 p.m. - A repeat of "Person of Interest" kept CBS in first for the 9 p.m. hour with 8.45 million viewers and a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49. FOX's second "Bones" repeat averaged 4.81 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo rating for second. A repeat of "Grey's Anatomy" brought 2.79 million viewers to ABC for third and a 0.7 key demo rating for fourth. NBC's repeats of "The Office" (2.8 million viewers and a 1.1 key demo) and "Whitney" (2.09 million and a 0.8 key demo) followed. The CW's "Secret Circle" repeat averaged 834,000 viewers.
10 p.m. - "The Mentalist" closed primetime in first for CBS with 8.89 million viewers and a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49 for what was, of course, a repeat. ABC's second "Grey's Anatomy" repeat averaged 3.16 million viewers and a 1.0 key demo rating for second, beating the 1.9 million viewers and 0.7 key demo for repeats of "The Office" and "Up All Night" on NBC.
Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor
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