Ratings Race - 'Macy's 4th' Grows From Last Year to Beat 'Boston Pops'

Last year, when the Fourth of July was on a Saturday, the later 'Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular' on CBS handily beat 'Macy's 4th of July Spectacular' on NBC. This year, 'Boston' was flat in the ratings while 'Macy's rose 25 percent in total viewers, and 30 in the 18-49 demo. Maybe Justin Bieber fever took over since the popular singer performed in the special.

It was enough to force a split on the night, with NBC (1.0/5, 4.74 million) taking the demo, while CBS (0.7/3, 4.97 million) edged them out for total viewers. Fox (0.9/4, 2.07 million) had to settle for second place in the demo with their younger skewing "Animation Domination" lineup.

ABC (0.7/3, 2.69 million) is probably rethinking their strategy to air their 4th of July special this past Friday instead of on the holiday. A re-airing of their 'Twilight'-themed Jimmy Kimmel special from June 24 tanked again.

Follow us after the jump for hourly breakdowns and further analysis.

7:00

ABC took the hour in the demo with a repeat of 'America's Funniest Home Videos' (0.8/4, 3.85 million), down 20 percent in viewers and 25 in the demo from last week, while a couple of newsmagazines tied at a tenth of a point below them. CBS had the most eyeballs on a fresh '60 Minutes' (0.7/4, 5.75 million), while NBC tied in the demo with the first hour of their 'Dateline NBC' (0.7/4, 3.28 million) rerun.

That left Fox to gobble up the scraps. Even the demo couldn't save dead-show-airing 'Sons of Tucson' (0.5/2, 1.12 million) from coming in last on the night. It lost nearly 18 percent of last week's viewers, and got beaten by it's lead-out, a repeat of 'American Dad' (0.5/2, 1.18 million).

8:00

'Dateline NBC' (0.9/4, 4.31 million) grew in its second hour to take the viewership crown for NBC. Fox brought out stronger competition with repeats of 'The Simpsons' (0.9/5, 2.21 million) and 'The Cleveland Show' (0.9/5, 2.14 million) to tie for the demo lead.

ABC and CBS were neck-and-neck with repeats of 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' (0.7/4, 3.09 million) and 'I Get That a Lot' (0.7/3, 3.555 million). Both were down considerably from last week, but the holiday weekend probably had a lot to do with it as the entire night is lower.

9:00

The demo was split pretty evenly between NBC's annual 'Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular' (1.4/7, 7.11 million) which took the night this year, and Fox's back-to-back repeats of 'Family Guy' (1.3/6, 2.93 million & 1.2/6, 2.83 million). 'Macy's' pulled in more than twice the viewers of 'Family Guy,' which means a lot of people outside the 18-49 range chose to stay in and watch the fireworks on TV.

CBS was down 25 percent in viewers and 40 percent with the latest repeat of 'Cold Case' (0.6/3, 3.875 million), though they can likely just chalk it up to fireworks fever. No excuse can make ABC's repeat of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live's Twilight Saga: Total Eclipse of the Heart' (0.6/3, 1.795 million) look good. That's less than half the audience last week's new episode of 'Scoundrels' got, and 'Scoundrels' is floundering. It's time to stop trying to make Kimmel work in primetime, ABC.

10:00

CBS had to settle for a demo tie with NBC against their 'Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular' (1.0/4, 6.69 million). NBC's repeat of 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' (1.0/5, 4.31 million) was an appealing enough alternative for many viewers.

Figuring that people were out celebrating the holidays, ABC skipped a new episode and instead went with a re-airing of the pilot episode for 'The Gates' (0.6/3, 2.015 million). Only time will tell if the strategy lures in any new viewers. Maybe some of the few who did watch Kimmel's 'Twilight' special stuck around for more vampires and werewolves in action.

Adults 18-49