Ratings: CMA Awards Leads ABC to Top Honors
Taylor Swift
A Taylor Swift-dominated Country Music Association Awards dominated the rest of its TV competition, according to early Nielsen estimates.
See photos of all the country stars on the red carpet
The 43rd Annual CMA Awards averaged 16.8 million viewers over its three-hour telecast and was the most-watched CMA Awards in four years. ABC also won every half-hour in the adults 18-to-49 demographic.
Although CBS ran a distant second, the lack of ABC's comedy block helped boost sitcoms The New Adventures of Old Christine (7.6 million viewers) and Gary Unmarried (7.7 million viewers). Christine pulled its best demo score since the season premiere, while Gary's was at its highest in almost a year. Criminal Minds (12.3 million viewers) lagged a bit, but Part 2 of the CSI trilogy crossover lead CSI: NY (13.9 million viewers) to its best numbers since September.
Taylor Swift tops Country Music Awards with four wins
Also gaining Wednesday was NBC's Law & Order: SVU (8.8 million viewers), which matched its season-high in the demo. Lead-in Mercy (6.8 million viewers) was also up a bit, and The Jay Leno Show earned 4.6 million viewers at 10/9c.
Fox got off to a slow start with the first So You Think You Can Dance dedicated results show of the season (5.5 million viewers), but improved with Glee (7.3 million viewers). On the CW, America's Next Top Model (3.2 million viewers) was down, and a Vampire Diaries repeat earned 1.2 million viewers
