Spotted Ratings, Sunday 7/31/11

WHAT MATTERS:

• Only occasionally does ABC air part of a Bachelor or Bachelorette season on a different night from the regularly-scheduled one. The reason why: the ratings always suffer. And The Bachelorette's Sunday "The Men Tell All" episode (1.6) hit a season and series low. It was just the second trip ever below the 2.0 threshold for the Bachelor/ette franchise. In terms of reading anything into tonight's finale ratings? Probably doesn't mean much.

• Big Brother (2.8) tied a season high, though that number may change in the finals due to the ten-minute interruption for a President Obama speech. Lead-out Same Name (1.4) is also subject to change due to a ten-minute overrun but lost a tenth from last week preliminarily. (ABC and NBC joined their 8:00 repeat programming in progress at 8:50, meaning their originals' start times later in the evening were unaffected.)

• The Marriage Ref (0.9) continues its limp toward cancellation. It'll double up episodes starting next week.

Above based on preliminary adults 18-49 ratings unless otherwise noted.