nielsen ratings
(fast national numbers for saturday, august 4, 2012)

Here are the highlights of the seven ad-sustained programs that aired in primetime on the broadcast networks last night:

NBC (26.08 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 7.8, #1) once again towered over the competition on Saturday with its coverage of the "2012 Summer Olympics" (26.09 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 7.8, #1).

FOX (2.14 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 1.1, #2) then offered up its presentation of "UFC on FOX #4" (2.14 million viewers, #6; adults 18-49: 1.1, #2). Said numbers were on par with its last UFC special (2.25 million viewers; adults 18-49: 1.0 on 5/5/12).

Next up was CBS (2.89 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 0.5, #T3) with new episodes of "NYC 22" (2.49 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.4, #T6), a second "NYC 22" (2.84 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 0.4, #T6) and a repeat of "48 Hours Mystery" (3.36 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 0.6, #T3).

And finally, encores of the feature "Norbit" (1.98 million viewers, #7; adults 18-49: 0.6, #T3) and "Castle" (2.22 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 0.5, #5) on ABC (2.06 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.5, #T3) closed out the night.

[NOTE #1: Late-night metered market ratings will return after the Olympics.]

[NOTE #2: Today's numbers are courtesy of TVMediaInsights.com due to delays from our usual sources.]

Here are the highlights of the nine ad-sustained programs that aired in primetime on the broadcast networks one year ago (8/6/11):

ABC (2.57 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T1) and FOX (2.39 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T1) split the demo honors on Saturday as the former offered up a rebroadcast of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2.57 million viewers, #7; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T3).

The latter then served up repeats of "Cops" (3.00 million viewers, #5; adults 18-49: 0.9, #T1), "Family Guy" (1.97 million viewers, #8; adults 18-49: 0.7, #5) and "The Cleveland Show" (1.62 million viewers, #9; adults 18-49: 0.6, #6).

Next up was CBS (3.82 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 0.6, #T3) with repeats of "CSI: Miami" (2.80 million viewers, #6; adults 18-49: 0.4, #9), "Hawaii Five-0" (3.81 million viewers, #3; adults 18-49: 0.5, #T7) and "48 Hours Mystery" (4.84 million viewers, #1; adults 18-49: 0.9, #T1).

And finally, NBC (3.59 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 0.6, #T3) closed out the evening with the original movie "Who Is Simon Miller?" (3.31 million viewers, #4; adults 18-49: 0.5, #T7) followed by a repeat of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (4.14 million viewers, #2; adults 18-49: 0.8, #T3).

In late-night metered market ratings (via NBC's press release):

An encore telecast of "Saturday Night Live" (2.9/8 in metered-market households), hosted by Ed Helms with musical guest Paul Simon, dominated its time period. Versus the same night last year, "SNL" is up 7 percent (2.9 vs. 2.7).

In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, "Saturday Night Live" averaged a 1.4 rating, 7 share in adults 18-49, making it the #1 telecast of the night ahead of all primetime programs on ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox.

Source: Nielsen Media Research