The two-hour finale of the summer show on Thursday took in a Nielsen preliminary 3.4 rating/11 share--which, although down from last year's season-ender when it grabbed a 3.7/11, was up a bit in terms of overall viewers: 9.9 million versus 9.6 million.
All this easily gave Fox a strong Thursday night win. Fox took a 3.4/11 to NBC's 2.3/7. CBS was farther down the list at a 1.9/6. ABC was next with a 1.4/4, with CW only earning about half of ABC's numbers, at a 0.7/2.
Second-best to "Dance" on the night was NBC's also strong summer effort "America's Got Talent" in an unusual 9:30 to 11 p.m. Thursday night time period. "Talent" was dinged a bit from the strong "Dance" finale, posting a 2.7/8--down from its usual mid-three ratings efforts. Last week, in its usual Tuesday night 9 p.m. time slot, "Talent" earned a 3.7/10.
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CBS' bookended the night with two modestly performing shows--"Big Brother" at 8 p.m., and its new crime-solving effort "Flashpoint" at 10 p.m., both earning a 2.1/7, in a tie for third place among all programs on Thursday. "Brother" was down from a 2.3/8, and "Flashpoint" was up from a 1.9/6 the week before.
Plus, there was another season finale last night, NBC's hard-working "Last Comic Standing," which only moved up to a 2.0/7 from a 1.9/6 the week before.
ABC's original summer scripted effort "Hopkins" fell behind all these shows, but remained the network's highlight of the night--grabbing a 1.7/5 at 10 p.m., the same numbers as a week before.