Holiday specs off and away to nice beginning

CBS paired 'Rudolph the Red-colored-Nosed Reindeer' and 'Victoria's Secret Fashion Show' on a single evening, and saw rankings boosts for specs. 'Victoria's Secret Fashion Show'In primetime, the time between Thanksgiving and xmas is stuffed with holiday special offers about Santa, Charlie Brown, a particular red-colored-nosed reindeer -- and, naturally, models.CBS handled a method to accomplish the apparently impossible, drawing strong rankings -- on a single evening, actually -- because of its unlikely combo of "Rudolph the Red-colored-Nosed Reindeer" and also the "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show." Once they broadcast on November. 29, both shows published rankings gains versus. this past year, joining a slew of publish-Thanksgiving event programs to spike within the Nielsens."Rudolph" increased 4% in grown ups 18-49 (4. rating/11 share) because of its best demo score in 3 years while drawing its biggest overall aud (12.64 million) in 4 years. And "Victoria's Secret" increased 35% in 18-49 (to some 4.6/12) and came its greatest overall crowd (10.4 million) in nine years.The concept to operate the special offers on a single evening is one thing that will figure to transmit folks such as the Parents Television Council right into a tizzy, however they haven't designed a fuss. Really, they'd don't have any reason to, because the internet smartly marketed each individually and placed the broadly appealing "NCIS" together.Anyone who viewed the network's doubleheader of National football league action on November. 27 saw numerous promotions for "Rudolph" and "Victoria's Secret" it is simply that they are never recommended like a tandem.Another perennial holiday fave, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on ABC, averaged a couple.8/8 in 18-49 and 9.a million audiences overall on 12 ,. 5 -Up 8% within the demo contributing to a million total audiences versus. this past year. Auds also demonstrated more curiosity about the 3 music special offers which are now a standard feature of the holidays -- even though they are hardly rankings dynamos.At ABC, "CMA Country Christmas" on 12 ,. 1 increased 50% in 18-49 (to two.1/6) and 23% as a whole audiences (to 9 million), keeping the internet competitive on the evening if this preempted dramas "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice."Fox did OK on 12 ,. 6 using its second "American Country Honours" (2./5 in 18-49, 7.4 million), up 33% from the low start last year and CBS saw slightly enhanced amounts because of its November. 30 "Grammy Nominations Concert" (1.9/5, 5.7 million), though these amounts really are a mere fraction of the items the particular honours show does (a lot more than 26 million audiences this season). Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com