After starting off with a bang following last weekend’s Super Bowl, “Undercover Boss” made the first step towards becoming 2010’s first breakout with a strong performance in its time period premiere.
Up against a 2010 Winter Olympics telecast that averaged a 7.0 adults 18-49 rating and 26.34 million viewers for the night and a 7.9 with 29.29 million viewers in the 9PM hour, “Boss” posted an impressive 5.1 with 15.28 million viewers.
The strong performance for the CBS series gave “Boss” the clear victory over non-Olympic programming.
Elsewhere on CBS, “The Amazing Race” premiered to a 2.8 rating with 9.07 million viewers, building out of its “60 Minutes” lead-in (8.21 million, 1.2). “Cold Case” followed “Boss” with a 2.1 and 8.72 million viewers, a serious disappointment given the show’s lead-in (especially since it dropped from a 2.2 to a 1.9 from half hour one to half hour two).
With ABC only airing “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” for the night, FOX represented the only potential 18-49 competition for the Olympics and “Undercover Boss.” Though Daytona 500 spillover coverage performed well (a 5.2 with 16.07 million viewers at 7PM and a 3.9 with 11.69 million at 7:30), “The Simpsons” (5.87 million, 2.6), “The Cleveland Show” (4.85 million, 2.3), “Family Guy” (6.42 million, 3.2) and “American Dad” (5.23 million, 2.5) all underwhelmed.
On ABC, two hours of “Home Videos” averaged 6.84 million with a 1.9, growing significantly from start to finish. “Extreme Makeover” did 5.95 million viewers with a 1.8.