February turned out to be a bad month for NBC. The network is projected to finish in fifth place in the Nielsen TV ratings during the February sweeps for the first time in history. That puts the network below Univision which beat NBC for the first time and came in fourth place in an in-season sweep, according to Deadline.com.
Networks consider sweeps the most important time of the year. It occurs three times a year and last for a four-week period in which Nielsen surveys the nation's television watching habits. This is when networks want their TV shows to air their best material.
From Jan. 31 to Feb. 19, the peacock network averaged a 1.2 rating among adults from ages 18 to 49. Univision, on the other hand, averaged a 1.5 rating and trumphed NBC every night of the sweep among adults 18 to 49. NBC also ranks below the 1.7 18-49 rating that ABC has been averaging this sweep, while Fox earned a 2.0 rating and CBS maintained its lead in first place with a 4.9 rating due to its broadcast of the Super Bowl and the Grammy Awards in February.
On the contrary, NBC won the sweeps back in November.
The NBC premiere of 'Do No Harm' on Jan. 31 flopped and was quickly cancelled on Feb. 7. The comedy show '1600 Penn' is also doing poorly with a weak 1.1 out of 3 in its last airing on Feb. 7. In addition, 'Smash' returned to the network for its second season with a limp 1.1/3 rating, it returned down 71 percent from its season one debut and 39 percent from its first-year finale -- and it fell another 25 percent to a series low of 0.9/2 this week.
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