'Big Brother' Wins Wednesday Night TV Ratings, ESPY Awards Down

CBS' Big Brother was the top-rated show Wednesday night, despite airing against ABC's ESPY Awards, which saw its ratings nose dive compared to last year's special.

Big Brother reeled in 5.21 million viewers and a 1.4 18-49 rating, reports TV By The Numbers. It was down a tenth in the ratings from last week. TKO: Total Knockout held on surprisingly well from its premiere last week, dropping from a 0.9 to a 0.8 18-49 rating. It also had 3.43 million total viewers.

The series finale of Code Black earned 5.33 million total viewers, making it the most-watched show of the night. However, its 0.7 18-49 rating was down a tenth from last week.

Over at ABC, the ESPY Awards, hosted by retired racecar driver Danica Patrick, averaged 3.94 million viewers, off an eye-popping 26 percent from last year. It also earned a 0.9 18-49 rating, a 36 percent drop from last year, notes The Hollywood Reporter. It was the lowest-rated edition of the show since it moved to ABC three years ago.

ESPN launched the ESPYs in 1993 as a sports awards show. This year, it was hosted at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Snowboarder Chloe Kim won Best Female Athlete and NHL star Alexander Ovechkin won Best Male Athlete.

The Arthur Ashe Courage Award went to the 141 athletes who spoke out against Larry Nassar, the former Team USA gymnastics doctor convicted of sexual abuse. The late Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School coaches Aaron Feis, Scott Beigel and Chris Hixon received the Best Coach award in honor of their actions during the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Back at the ratings table, a repeat of NBC's Ellen's Game of Games earned 4.03 million viewers and a 0.7 18-49 rating. A World of Dance repeat had 2.4 million viewers and a 0.5 rating in the key demographic, and a new episode of Reverie had 1.68 million viewers and a 0.4 rating.

Fox's Gordon Ramsay night did well, with Masterchef attracting 3.54 million viewers and a 1.0 rating. Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back had 3.25 million viewers and a 1.0 rating in the demo.

The CW's The Originals had 680,000 viewers and a 0.2 18-49 rating. The network also aired the special Girl Got Game, which drew 470,000 viewers and a 0.1 18-49 rating.

According to early late night ratings, The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! both earned 0.4 18-49 ratings in metered markets, while The Late Show had a 0.3 rating in the demo.

Photo Credit: CBS