Ratings Watch: Big Launch for ‘Celebrity Family Feud’, ‘BattleBots’

ABC’s new summertime Sunday night reality lineup is a winner. The June 25 premiere of Celebrity Family Feud was the night’s No. 1 show in total viewers and adults 18-49, and was TV’s top summer series debut since CBS’ Under the Dome in 2013.

Celebrity Family Feud was also the top-rated unscripted summer debut since NBC’s The Voice results show on June 22, 2011.

Meanwhile, later that night the ABC premiere of BattleBots (previously a Comedy Central show) was the No. 2 show of the night and won its 9/8c timeslot. BattleBots easily beat the premiere a year ago of ABC’s Rising Star.

Also at ABC, the deciding NBA Finals Game 6 on June 16 (Golden State Warriors win vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-97) was up from the most-recent sixth game in 2013 (Miami vs. San Antonio) among both total viewers (up 13%) and adults 18-49 (up 5%). The entire six-game series was up 29% with viewers last year, making it the most-watched-ever on ABC (since 2003) and biggest audience overall since 1998.

On cable, the Season 6 premiere of TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles made it into the top 10, with 6.4 million viewers, but that was down from last year’s Season 5 premiere (8 million).
Nonetheless, Rizzoli was the most time-shifted program of the week, adding 2 million more viewers in DVR and VOD viewership after three days, the most of any show.

Here are the top 25 shows (including Live+3 DVR and VOD data) for the week ending June 21.