December 24, 2013 - 12:36 PM
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Nearly six decades after it first aired, an "I Love Lucy" Christmas special was last week's most-watched holiday program.
There was a gimmick involved: The episode of the 1950s Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz sitcom was colorized. A companion episode that featured Lucy as a grape-stomper in Italy also went from black-and-white to colour.
The Nielsen company said Tuesday that the "I Love Lucy" special on CBS drew 8.7 million viewers to rank as last Friday night's most-watched program. Runner-up "A Charlie Brown Christmas" — a relative newcomer that debuted in 1965 — settled for 6.4 million the night before on ABC.
CBS was the most-watched network. But NBC was the most popular among advertiser-favoured young adults with help from "The Voice" finale and the NFL Bears-Eagles game on "Sunday Night Football."
News from © The Associated Press, 2013