‘Bachelor’ Finale Pays Off For ABC In Ratings

NEW YORK (AP) — An unusual ending to ABC’s long-running attempted love matches on “The Bachelor” paid off for the network.

Both parts of the finale to the 23rd edition of the series hit the Nielsen top 10 last week, as bachelor Colton Underwood — who started his reign as a virgin — revealed he was dating contestant Cassie Randolph.

That wasn’t initially the plan, since Underwood jumped a fence to abandon the two women who had been finalists to chase Randolph, who had left the show.

The show’s performance led ABC to its fourth weekly win in a row among viewers aged 18-to-49, the demographic its advertisers chase. That’s ABC’s longest streak among this group in nearly four years.

CBS won the week among all viewers, averaging 6 million people watching in primetime. ABC had 5.1 million, NBC had 4.5 million, Fox had 2.7 million, Univision and Ion Television tied with 1.37 million, Telemundo had 1.1 million and the CW had 900,000.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.33 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 1.94 million, MSNBC had 1.82 million, HGTV had 1.28 million and History had 1.22 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.6 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.2 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.1 million.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for March 11-17. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. “NCIS,” CBS, 12.08 million.

2. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 10.54 million.

3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.1 million.

4. “FBI,” CBS, 8.96 million.

5. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 8.47 million.

6. “Bachelor Season Finale” (Tuesday), ABC, 8.24 million.

7. “The Bachelor” (Monday), ABC, 8.16 million.

8. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 7.84 million.

9. “The Good Doctor,” ABC, 7.78 million.

10. “This is Us,” NBC, 7.75 million.

11. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 7.73 million.

12. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 7.64 million.

13. “Survivor,” CBS, 7.54 million.

14. “American Idol” (Sunday), ABC, 7.18 million.

15. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 6.98 million.

16. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 6.58 million.

17. “Hawaii Five-0,” CBS, 6.54 million.

18. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 6.44 million.

19. “Magnum P.I.,” CBS, 6.05 million.

20. “New Amsterdam,” NBC, 5.99 million.