Ratings: ‘The Exorcist’ finale, ‘MacGyver’ steady; ‘Hawaii Five-0’ drops slightly

There wasn’t necessarily a robust lineup of television last night, so you can draw the assumption with that in mind that the majority of the ratings on the night would be significantly higher. However, in doing that you would be making a wrong assumption altogether! The reason that most of the ratings were either steady or down last night was because we were only a week and two days from Christmas! As of this moment, there are people with a lot of other stuff to do beyond just checking out TV as it happens.

Fox – Let’s start with what is in our mind the top story given that it was the finale — “The Exorcist” drawing a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic for the final episode of the season. The number was on the lower end of its post-premiere average, but it’s constantly fluctuated between this and a 0.7. We do feel like there’s a good chance for a renewal, but hats off to the writers for giving the show a decent ending if this was the conclusion.

“Hell’s Kitchen,” meanwhile, continues to be incredibly solid in getting a 1.0.

ABC – While there was no “Shark Tank,” “Last Man Standing” actually won the night with a 1.2 — which is something that we don’t see happen all that often. Both it and “Dr. Ken” (0.9) rose versus some recent performances.

CBS – For the final episode of the year, “MacGyver” improved up to a 1.0 rating; “Hawaii Five-0” slipped slightly to a 1.1, but still performed a tiny bit better in the raw data (we round up to the tenth here) from the final episode of 2015. The show remains up over 8% year-to-year on average.

NBC – For those really curious, “Caught on Camera” scored a 0.9 rating. It’s not something we cover extensively.