CBS Peaks for the Holiday Season

The ratings are in and CBS is having a happy holiday season this year as it made its way into the black. According to Hollywood Reporter, "Following its 12th consecutive weekly victory in total viewers, CBS became the first major broadcast network this season to move into positive year-to-year territory since premiere week."

Through December 21, CBS averaged 12 million viewers, up 1 percent from last year, with NBC, ABC, and Fox trailing behind, all down 9 percent. Hollywood Reporter goes on to say that CBS's Monday night comedy lineup of How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory and Worst Week combined with the heavy-hitter, NCIS, and the breakout smash hit, The Mentalist, helped put the network into the positive percentages. Also, veterans Two and a Half Men as well as Without a Trace received their highest marks of the season.Unfortunately, they can't celebrate a complete win as all of the Big Four networks are still in the red in the adult 18-49 demographic, with CBS still holding on at the head of the pack at minus 3 percent.

Hollywood Reporter concludes that the network has been a "bright spot in a gloomy fall broadcast season marred by across-the-board ratings declines," meaning simply this: CBS hasn't been doing too shabby this season.