• by Wayne Friedman , December 27, 2013

The day after Christmas showed a recovery from Christmas Day -- one of the lowest-viewed TV days of the year.

On Thursday, CBS posted some 6.5 million viewers and a Nielsen preliminary 1.4 rating 4 share among 18-49 viewers -- all thanks to a rerun of “The Big Bang Theory” at 8 p.m. The strong comedy was easily the best-viewed show of the night, a 2.6/9 among 18-49 viewers and 10.9 million viewers overall.

All broadcast network shows were in reruns.

 The second-best-rated score went to CBS’ “The Millers,” which earned a 1.7/5 at 8:30 p.m. Third place went as a tie -- ABC’s “Shark Tank” at 8 p.m. and NBC’s two-hour special “The Women of SNL” from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., both at a 1.3/4.

For the night overall, after first-place CBS, ABC was at a 1.1/3 among 18-49 viewers and 5.1 million average viewers. NBC had the same 18-49 number, but with slightly less viewers, at 3.4 million. Univision was at a 1.0/3 in 18-49 and 2.9 million viewers. Fox was next at 0.4/1 and 1.5 million viewers; CW saw a 0.3/1 and 905,000 total viewers.

On Christmas Day, all broadcast networks witnessed very low viewership: CBS, 4.6 million; NBC, 3.0 million; ABC, 2.7 million total viewers; Univision, 2.1 million; Fox 1.4 million; and CW, 903,000 .