Friday Ratings: Grinch Beats Frosty, Santa Claus and Grandma

In the latest TV ratings, NBC’s broadcast of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! tied SmackDown for the nightly demo win and matched Blue Bloods for Friday’s largest audience — and it did so all without packages, boxes or bows.

The Grinch drew 3.2 million total viewers and a 0.5 demo rating, per TVSeriesFinale.com, leading into 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas (2.2 mil/0.3), Trolls Holiday in Harmony (1.7 mil/0.3) and SNL‘s annual Christmas special (1.9 mil/0.4).

Fox’s Friday Night SmackDown (2 mil/0.5) was steady week-to-week.

Over on CBS, Frosty the Snowman did 2.4 mil/0.4, followed by Frosty Returns‘ 2 mil/0.4. Leading out of a Magnum rerun (2.6 mil/0.3), a Blue Bloods repeat copped 3.2 mil/0.3.

ABC’s broadcast of Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town did 2 mil/0.3, followed by 20/20‘s 2.4 mil/0.3.

The CW’s Masters of Illusion holiday special drew 740K/0.1, leading into Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer‘s 560K/0.1.

For those in an animated Christmas special fantasy league, a reminder that Rudolph did 3.8 mil and a 0.6 on Monday. Good luck!

Want scoop on any of the above shows? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.

The Live+Same Day numbers reported in our ratings column do not reflect a show’s overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless denoted as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Warning: Heart may grow three sizes.