AFTERNOON UPDATE: As expected, once the NFL game was scrubbed from NBC’s ratings, its numbers got markedly worse:
PARKS & RECREATION: Down 0.1 to 1.2 (down the same amount from last week)
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY: Down 0.1 to 1.1, making it even more the worst comedy debut in NBC history
SEAN SAVES THE WORLD: Down 0.2 to 1.4 (0.8 below last week’s Michael J. Fox Show premiere at 9PM).
MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW: Down 0.2 to 1.7 (down 0.5 from last week’s debut, and heading down 0.3 during the course of the half-hour, tying Glee for non-CW last place at 9:45PM)
PARENTHOOD: Down 0.2 to 1.5, a new series low.
Also worth noting from the late numbers: although THE MILLERS held onto its 3.3 number for the half-hour, it trended downward as it aired and was at 3.1 by 8:45PM. Similarly, THE CRAZY ONES fell to 2.7 at 9:15PM, suggesting that both those shows haven’t hit bottom yet. On the other hand, the amazing SCANDAL stayed rock-solid through its hour, with the same 3.7 at 10:45PM that it had at 10PM. (ELEMENTARY fell 0.3 during the same hour.)
EARLIER:
It was Shonda Rhimes to the rescue last night for ABC.
ABC: SCANDAL got off to a fantastic start for the season with a series record 3.6, up 0.4 from last season’s finale and a crazy 1.5 from the Season 2 premiere. It was also up 0.2 from last week’s Grey’s Anatomy season premiere. Even the Scandal clip show that ran at 8PM did fairly well at 1.6. Grey’s, for its part, was down 0.4 from its 2-hour premiere to 3.0, still first place in its hour after all these years.
CBS: The premiere of THE MILLERS scored a 3.3, which sounds like a big number (and is), but is the result of its huge 5.0 lead-in from THE BIG BANG THEORY. Big Bang was down 0.5 from the 8PM episode last week. Its special 8:30PM episode had been even bigger at 6.1, which provided a massive lead-in to the premiere of THE CRAZY ONES. With its lead-in reduced almost by half this week, Crazy Ones held on pretty well, losing 1.0 to 2.9, just narrowly behind Grey’s. That in turn affected 2 1/2 MEN, which fell 0.5 to 2.4, its series low. A mere 0.1 drop for ELEMENTARY to 2.0 was relatively good news, given the competition at ABC.
NBC: It’s bad and will likely get worse, because the Thursday night NFL game was carried on NBC’s Cleveland affiliate, which may well result in a downward adjustment this afternoon. As it is, PARKS & RECREATION was even at 1.3, and then the premiere of WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, at 1.2, was the lowest rated comedy premiere in the history of the Peacock. SEAN SAVES THE WORLD debuted at 1.6, putting it 0.6 below last week’s premiere for THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW in that slot. Fox looked pretty good in the context of the rest of the line-up, the network’s highest rated show of the night at 1.9. PARENTHOOD, even against the Scandal juggernaut, is currently listed as up 0.1 for the week to 1.7, although that may be walked back this afternoon.
FOX: THE X FACTOR was down just 0.1 to 2.0, but the second half of GLEE‘s Beatles salute fell 0.4 to 1.6.
CW: The season premiere of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES was down a heavy 0.4 from last year to 1.2, although that episode benefited from a comparatively bigger cliffhanger. THE ORIGINALS aired a “special premiere event” that was a (badly) re-edited version of the Vampire Diaries episode that had served as a back-door pilot in May, and had a 0.9.
Tonight is the first without season or series premieres we’ve had for a while, so we’ll see how the network Fridays look with some stability.
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