Nellie Andreeva

It was a tough night all around. ABC did the best with the 44th Annual Country Music Association Awards (4.7/13 in adults 18-49, 16.5 million viewers overall), winning the night in total viewers and all key demographics by a wide margin and posting its strongest Wednesday numbers in a year. Still, it was down 11% in adults 18-49 vs. last year for an all-time low. In total viewers, it was down 4%, logging its second most watched telecast since 2005. Things were much worse for NBC and CBS. At NBC, the recently canceled Undercovers (1.2/4) was down 8% to log its lowest rated telecast ever. It was followed by Law & Order: SVU (2.0/5, down 9%), and Law & Order:LA (1.7/5, down 11%), which also posted all-time series lows. (Last week, SVU hit a season low, while LOLA tied its previous all-time low.) The same happened to the CBS Wednesday series with even steeper week-to-week declines. Survivor: Nicaragua (3.2/9, down 14%) posted its lowest-rated regular telecast ever. Criminal Minds (3.0/8, down 23%) and freshman The Defenders (1.8/5, down 22%) tied their lowest-rated telecasts.

After a three-week hiatus for baseball preemptions, Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen (2.7/7) returned 13% lower than its last original on Oct. 13 for a season low. At CW, without ABC’s 9-10 PM comedies to compete against, Hellcats (1.9 million, 1.2/4 in 18-34) shot up 20% from last week in adults 18-34, its best delivery in the demo in six weeks. America’s Next Top Model at 8 PM (2.7 million, 1.4/4) was up a tenth in the young demo.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.