America welcomed back WILL & GRACE with open arms.
DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2).
Ratings analysis and comparisons follow the chart.
NBC: The return of WILL & GRACE was a triumph, the highest-rated non-football of the night at 2.9, and notably dominant in every demo, including 18-34s. We’ll find out next week if viewers were curious or if they’re in for the long haul, but right now the veteran show looks like a hit all over again. However, the WILL & GRACE tide didn’t lift NBC’s other boats. SUPERSTORE was down 0.3 from last year’s premiere to 1.2, THE GOOD PLACE slipped 0.1 from 2016 to 1.3, and GREAT NEWS lost more than half its lead-in to 1.3 (still above the 1.2/1.0 for the show’s April series premiere). The night ended with CHICAGO FIRE’s season premiere at 1.5, down 0.3 from last season’s premiere (on a Tuesday, and with a THIS IS US lead-in).
ABC: The 14th season of GREY’S ANATOMY kicked off with a 2-hour premiere at 2.3, down just 0.2 from last year’s 1-hour premiere. HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER fell 0.3 from 2016 to 1.1 (and last year it had a much lower lead-in from NOTORIOUS at 1.1).
FOX: GOTHAM dropped 0.2 from last week to 0.8, but somewhat surprisingly, THE ORVILLE withstood all the new competition and held at 1.1.
CBS: The preliminary number for THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL at 3.4 looks bad compared to last year’s final 6.1 rating for the parallel week, but it’s more in line with the CBS premiere game in 2016, which had an early 3.8.
CW: PENN & TELLER: FOOL US held at 0.4. The new WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY dropped 0.2 to 0.2, but the rerun was steady at 0.3.
More premieres tonight, including the full CBS line-up, FOX’s low-rated THE EXORCIST, and Syfy’s Z NATION. In addition, ABC airs the 2-hour INHUMANS pilot that was in IMAX theatres last month.
COMPARISONS TO SIMILAR NIGHTS: Preliminary adult 18-49 ratings versus the same night last year and same night last week.
PREVIOUS THURSDAY NETWORK SCORECARDS (FAST NATIONALS)
PREVIOUS THURSDAY CABLE & BROADCAST NATIONALS
###
About the Author
