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CBS Wins Sunday as Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie Soft for ABC

The Hallmark Hall of Fame franchise remains a shadow of its former self, with Sunday’s premiere of “In My Dreams” drawing tiny numbers for ABC while providing an opening for NBC’s “Believe” to show some gains. CBS won the night with its regular lineup, led in demos by “The Amazing Race” and in total viewers by “The Good Wife.”

On an Easter Sunday when ABC preempted “Resurrection” for the Hallmark movie, NBC’s “Believe” averaged a 1.2 rating/3 share in adults 18-49 and 4.7 million viewers overall — winning head to head over “In My Dreams,” which averaged a 1.0/3 in 18-49 and 4.6 million viewers overall for its two hours. While still not good numbers for “Believe,” last night’s demo rating was up 20% (0.2) from the previous week when it faced “Resurrection” on ABC and at a four-week high; “Resurrection” and “Believe” are not that dissimilar in theme, so it makes sense that the ABC preemption would help the NBC show.

CBS’ “The Good Wife” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 9.1 million viewers overall) was down a tick week to week but tied with Fox’s “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 3.7 million viewers overall) for the 18-49 broadcast lead in the 9 o’clock hour; the Eye drama was the night’s most-watched program overall.

Leading into “Cosmos,” which was up slightly from last week, Fox aired an original episode of “Bob’s Burgers” (0.6/3 in 18-49, 1.5 million viewers overall), followed by encores of “American Dad” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.5 million viewers overall), “The Simpsons” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 2.2 million viewers overall) and “Family Guy” (1.1/3 in 18-49, 2.6 million viewers overall).

At ABC, the Hallmark movie was preceded by an original episode of “Once Upon a Time” (1.7/5 in 18-49, 5.7 million viewers overall), which hit a low (down 0.3 from the previous week) and likely lost a chunk of family viewers to the Easter holiday; still, it again was the No. 1 series for its hour (and night) among adults 18-49. Kicking off the night, the Alphabet aired a repeat of the special “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown” (0.9/4 in 18-49, 3.5 million viewers overall).

At CBS, “60 Minutes” opened the night with a 1.1/4 in 18-49 and 8.8 million viewers overall, and “The Amazing Race” followed with a 1.6/5 in 18-49 and 7.6 million viewers overall, down 0.2 from the previous week and at a season low.

For NBC, “American Dream Builders” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 2.5 million viewers overall) was down a tenth as it moved to its new timeslot, and was followed by “Dateline” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall), which provided the net with time period improvement from recent weeks and may have contributed to the rise for “Believe.” Following “Believe,” fellow drama newbie “Crisis” (0.9/3 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall) was down a tenth to its low.

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: CBS, 1.4/4; ABC, 1.1/4; Fox, 1.0/3; NBC, 0.9/3; Univision, 0.8/2; Telemundo, 0.7/2.

In total viewers: CBS, 8.5 million; ABC, 4.6 million; NBC, 3.7 million; Fox, 2.6 million; Univision, 1.9 million; Telemundo, 1.7 million.

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