Ratings: ‘Nikita’ season 3, ‘Gossip Girl’ no match for CW holiday specials

We’re not sure about how The CW must feel at this given moment. From one standpoint, the network executives must be over the moon that they drew two 0.5 ratings in the 18-49 demographic for a very tough night in Black Friday … especially when this was an improvement of 20% on the network’s performance on Monday. The downside? Redundantly, this was a 20% improvement on the network’s ratings on Monday night.

Here are a list of the shows that the one-two punch of “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer” and “The Happy Elf” defeated when it comes to their average ratings this season: “Gossip Girl,” “90210,” “Emily Owens MD,” and “Nikita.” As a matter of fact, “The Happy Elf” improved upon “Nikita’s” recent performance by 66%. These specials are not even brand-new, and are played multiple times by the network every years. Then again, families are desperate for holiday programming after Thanksgiving, and these shows are far more casual viewer-friendly than shows starring Blake Lively or Maggie Q.

When we do our midseason reviews next month, we will have plenty of interesting things to say about The CW. With “Arrow” and “Supernatural,” Wednesday nights are sensational, and Thursdays are even tolerable despite a middling “Beauty and the Beast.” Mondays and Fridays, meanwhile, clearly need some work, even though “Gossip Girl” is ending this year and will be replaced by “The Carrie Diaries” in January.

What are you more surprised about: that these holiday specials fared better than almost half of The CW’s regularly-scheduled programming, or that these aforementioned programs are so low that they allow this to happen?