Nellie Andreeva

ABC dominated the ratings last night with the two-hour season finale of The Bachelor (4.5/12, 13.8 million viewers) and The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special (4.7/12, 13.9 million). Both were down from last spring, the finale by 15% in 18-49, the post-finale special by 11%. In 18-49, it was the lowest-rated Bachelor finale in almost 3 years, since May 2008. Still, the finale hit a season high and was up a whopping 29% from the most recent regular episode. In total viewers, the Bachelor closer was the third most watched in the last 11 seasons. For the night, ABC (4.5/12, 13.9 million) posted a season high in 18-49 and logged its highest Monday average in almost a year.

Fox and NBC, which aired originals against ABC’s Bachelor-themed lineup, were both down from their last originals, with most series posting lows. House (3.5/10) was down 8% from last week, The Chicago Code was off by 5%. NBC’s Chuck (1.6/5) was down 6% from its last original 2 weeks ago to a series low. The Event (1.2/3) tumbled 14% from its disappointing two-hour spring premiere last week to also hit a series low. At 10 PM, Harry’s Law (1.7/5, 10 million) was down 6%, tying its series low, but drew its largest overall audience in 6 weeks.

The only original on CBS was new comedy Mad Love (2.1/6), which was down 13% from last week for a series low. Both weeks it followed a How I Met Your Mother rerun (1.9/8 vs 2.0/6 last week), building on it. Once again, a repeat of Two and a Half Men (2.6/7, 9.8 million) was CBS’ top program of the night in 18-49 and total viewers.


TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.