Tradition meant a lot Saturday night. Central Floridians who decided to greet 2012 via television stuck overwhelmingly in prime time with ABC and Dick Clark, who have owned the night.
“American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest was the main host of the ABC festivities since Clark has reduced his role. A 10 p.m. special brought in 167,800 viewers. It was the most-watched program locally in prime time.ABC turned over all of prime time to Clark. The network marked the 40th anniversary of Clark welcoming the new year with a two-hour special that averaged 125,800 viewers.
The next three most popular series in prime time were three “NCIS” reruns on USA. The most-watched of them attracted 76,000 viewers.
Next came four repeats of “The Big Bang Theory” on TBS. The most-watched of them had 64,200 viewers.
The most-watched New Year’s Eve celebration on another network was NBC’s 10 p.m. special with Carson Daly. It placed No. 18 and brought in 32,500 viewers.
We’ll have the late-night numbers later.
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