• by Wayne Friedman , July 8, 2013

On one of the lowest TV viewing nights of the year -- July 4 -- only NBC struck with original programming, with its expanded annual “Macy’s 4th of July Spectacular.”

Two hours for fireworks programming pulled in a Nielsen preliminary 1.5 rating/7 share among 18-49 viewers and some 7.1 million average total viewers. A year ago, the one-hour show from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. took a 1.8 rating.

NBC says when looking at the same 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. time period, this year was actually higher than 2012 -- a 1.9 rating versus a 1.8 rating.

Total viewers were also higher at 8.83 million versus 8.11 million. That key one-hour period is the biggest audience for that show in 13 years -- since 2000, the first year NBC had the show. At 10 p.m. NBC offered  a rerun -- a one-hour version of Macy’s show, which earned a 1.3/6 and 5.49 million average total viewers.

Only NBC and Univision topped the 1 rating mark among 18-49 viewers -- with NBC at a 1.4/7; Univision with a 1.0/5; CBS at 0.8/4; Fox with 0.6/3; ABC at 0.4/2; and CW with 0.2/1. NBC also led in total viewers, at 6.560 million viewers, followed by CBS with 4.332 million, Univision at 2.485 million, ABC with 2.199 million, Fox at 1.831 million and CW with a 547,000 .