What TV Shows Won Big In the Ratings Last Night?

It’s Friday, and with it another round of Thursday night TV has come and gone, and we get ready to DVR our favorite Friday and Saturday shows to watch in time for Sunday night dramas and the start of a whole new week. Some of us have social lives on the weekend, you know.

Did you watch Tinie Tempah perform on The X Factor, or Community turn into an anime foosball battle out of the clear blue sky? What about the Always Sunny gang struggling to make it to the movies, or Seeley discovering the news about his father on Bones? We’ll tell you what America was watching, and the big winner from last night’s ratings might surprise you!

In the 8 o’clock slot, FOX’s The X Factor hit it big with 10.2 million viewers, the leader in the 18-49 demographic, but couldn’t quite edge out even a rerun of The Big Bang Theory, which came in at 10.45 million. Just to clarify, a re-run of a three-camera laugh-tracked sitcom edged out a live national performance competition. Hurm.

On the lower side of 8pm, Community managed to score an improved high for itself with 3.9 million viewers, edging out its equally well-received but less-endangered NBC pairing Parks and Recreation, which came it at 3.7 million. While not officially cancelled, Community’s consistently less-than-impressive 8:00pm ratings earned it a spot on the bench for next season, left off NBC’s midseason lineup. Both NBC shows were also bested by ABC’s Santa Clause is Comin’ To Town special.

At 9:00pm, the ABC CMA Country Christmas dominated, scoring 9.3 million viewers, with FOX’s Bones' “The Male in the Mail” finishing second at 8.8 million. CBS’ Person of Interest scored the third-place prize, with 8.1 million. NBC’s 9:00pm pairing of The Office and Whitney fared better than its 8:00 counterpart, The Office’s “Mrs. California” scoring 5.7 million (and the 18-49 demographic leader), and Whitney earning 4 million.

Finally, ABC’s CMA Country Christmas continued to dominate at 10:00pm, with CBS’s The Mentalist trailing behind at 7.9 million viewers, and NBC’s Prime Suspect at 4.6 Million.

What did you watch last night? Did your favorite shows earn the ratings they got? What will you be watching tonight? Sound off in the comments below with your favorites!