Last night’s breakout star has a day job. Someone sign the President to a development deal… in four years.
CW: The gambit of launching EMILY OWENS MD while the debate occupied all the other broadcast networks didn’t work, as the show debuted with a weak 0.5. That didn’t even hold the 0.6 lead-in it had from HART OF DIXIE, which was up slightly from last week.
NBC: Has any debate ever scored a 4.7 on a single network in the modern era? NBC had the lion’s share of debate watchers, thanks to its domination of the 8PM hour with THE VOICE, but impressively, preliminary numbers have the debate 0.1 higher than its 4.6 lead-in, even though the Obama/Romney fireworks were airing on almost every other network as well.
FOX: Although last night’s numbers will be somewhat uncharacteristic, since the network’s New Girl anchor didn’t air, the 0.3 plunge for BEN & KATE to a terrible 1.2 makes FOX’s rush to give the show a back-order even harder to understand than it was last week. That followed a 1.7 for RAISING HOPE, down a tick.
ABC: At 2.1, the DANCING WITH THE STARS results hour scored around the same as it’s been doing in the 9PM slot. Next week ABC will debut its regular Tuesday line-up, with sitcoms Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B– joining the flood in that hour.
CBS: The network took the night off, airing an NCIS LA rerun (with 1.4) as debate lead-in. CBS will do the same thing next week, when it uses sitcom reruns to precede Monday’s final debate.
SUBURGATORY makes its belated season debut tonight, and we’ll see how it holds its Modern Family lead-in, but the most interesting numbers will be the Week 2 results for NASHVILLE, CHICAGO FIRE and ARROW. Also, given the spectacular ratings for the return of The Walking Dead, FX will look for big results from its re-launch of AMERICAN HORROR STORY with a new setting and storyline.
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