Lowest-rated network broadcast (in the "Big 3" era)?

[bpatrick]

It was, along with "The Cara Williams Show" and
"The Reporter."

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

There was a show called "Harry's Girls" on NBC in the 1963-64 TV season that may have been one with few viewers. Even NBC poked fun at the show. It was aired Fridays at 9:30 P.M. (ET) and was followed by "The Jack Paar Program" at 10 P.M. At one point in that season, the Paar show would open with an announcer saying, "now, as millions tune back to NBC....we present The Jack Paar Program".

 

[Ultimajock]

There was a show called "Harry's Girls" on NBC in the 1963-64 TV season that may have been one with few viewers. Even NBC poked fun at the show. It was aired Fridays at 9:30 P.M. (ET) and was followed by "The Jack Paar Program" at 10 P.M. At one point in that season, the Paar show would open with an announcer saying, "now, as millions tune back to NBC....we present The Jack Paar Program".

...actually, I think that dig was at That Was The Week That Was, the show that replaced Harry's Girls. Paar and TW3 had a running Jack Benny-Fred Allen style "feud" that half-season, with TW3 announcer Jerry Damon "signing off" the NBC network for the night (slighting both Paar and Johnny Carson) and Paar retaliating with comments about "Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour" (Morgan was a frequent guest on TW3)...

 

[bpatrick]

Paar's references to "Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour"
may have been intended as humor, but Morgan actually
did host a talent show--"Henry Morgan's Great Talent
Hunt"--in the early '50s. Arnold Stang (the voice of
Top Cat) was his sidekick. From what I've heard about
the show--besides its short life--it sounds more like a
prototype of "The Gong Show" than anything resembling
Ted Mack's show.

The year before "Harry's Girls," NBC had another clunker
in the Friday 9:30 slot: "Don't Call Me Charlie." A military
comedy ostensibly about an Army veterinarian stationed
in France, the title referred to the CO's admonition never
to call him "Charlie" (his first name was Charles). That show
lasted about as long as "Harry's Girls" before the Bill Cullen
version of "The Price Is Right" took over the slot (as it would
on ABC a year later).

 

[Ultimajock]

Paar's references to "Henry Morgan's Amateur Hour"
may have been intended as humor, but Morgan actually
did host a talent show--"Henry Morgan's Great Talent
Hunt"--in the early '50s. Arnold Stang (the voice of
Top Cat) was his sidekick. From what I've heard about
the show--besides its short life--it sounds more like a
prototype of "The Gong Show" than anything resembling
Ted Mack's show.

...actually, both Stang and the concept of oddly-talented amateurs was a holdover from Morgan's late-'40s radio shows on ABC and NBC; Stan Freberg was one of the oddball guest performers on the ABC version (before Stan got his contract with Capitol Records). And even earlier than that, on the 15-minute Mutual network show Morgan did, he played so many bits of Spike Jones records that Spike would send Morgan test pressings of the very latest City Slickers sessions for him to use before RCA Victor released the commercial 78s; Jones once claimed Morgan was the first program host anywhere to play "Der Fuhrer's Face," the City Slickers' biggest hit...

 

[charlestondxman]

Well, last Saturday night (Valentine's Day), the lowest ever rating for any primetime program on the "Big 3" networks occurred. At 9:00 p.m, a repeat of Grey's Anatomy aired on ABC, and it got just 1,210,000 viewers (1.24 million for the hour) :, and had a 0.4/1 rating in adults 18-49 (the big ratings group).

Since Valentine's Day is one of the biggest nights of going out to eat of the year, and one of the biggest movie nights, this played a huge part in the rating.

The highest rated show of the night, 48 Hours Mystery, got over 1.5 million viewers less than NBA Allstar Saturday Night on TNT, which was embarassing for broadcast TV.

Here are the ratings, from PIfeedback:

http://pifeedback.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/63310451/m/353102091/p/1