Broadcast TV had a somewhat horrific night on Sunday, with only five shows, and just three scripted shows, making it above the 1.0 barrier – two being on FOX. NBC self-indulged, ABC plonked on a film, and CBS had the crazy idea that previewing an online-only show skewing heavily towards an older audience would bring in a young crowd. FOX was steadfast and familiar, and it, as well as the poor performances by other networks, seemed to help, as all their shows were up on last week, however, it seems not enough for “Son of Zorn”.

Sunday (Feb 19)’s green-with-guilt episode pulled in 2.443 million viewers, scoring a 1.1/4 18-49 demo rating, up slightly on the second-lowest-ever viewership of previous episode “Fatzcarraldo” with 2.399 million and the lowest-ever 18-49 rating it had with 1.02/3. Sunday’s episode, “The Cad and the Hat”, was also behind the equivalent episode last season, “Gal of Constant Sorrow“, which had a 1.4/4 rating and 3.10 million viewers.

Despite the negative aspect of this story, it tied with “NCIS: Los Angeles” for the highest 18-49 viewership of the night in broadcast shows, with both shows at 1.1/4, and the CBS show topping the night in overall viewership among scripted shows with 8.606 million; plus, “The Simpsons” was FOX’s top show on Sunday night.

Another bonus point for the show came with FOX’s shows having the highest 18-49 skews of the night, with 57% for all shows except a 60% for “Bob’s Burgers”, and is good news considering “Son of Zorn”, “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers” had, as well as “The Simpsons”, mediocre figures, with the former finishing at cancellation-level 0.7/2 (1.58m) and the latter two at 1.0/4 (2.257m) and 0.9/3 (1.97m).

So far, the season average is 2.08/7 and 4.84 million viewers. At this point last season, it was slightly behind this season’s average, at 2.06/6 and 4.74 million viewers.

FOX saw sense after the all-time low in 18-49 viewership the show suffered against the Grammys and aren’t putting a new episode against the Oscars – an event likely to receive up to double the ratings of the Grammys (who knows what a new episode would’ve received in terms of viewership against that, considering how weak “The Simpsons” is at the moment.). See you again March 7th!

P.S. Apologies for the post being published a day later than usual; final ratings were delayed by a day due to the Presidents’ Day weekend.

Sources: TVByTheNumbers, SpottedRatings, ShowBuzzDaily