Ratings: ‘The Muppets’ gets off to solid start; ‘Scream Queens’ fizzles; ‘Best Time Ever’ surges

The biggest lesson to take away from the primetime ratings last night is one that we have tried to impart many times before: Just because you are trending on Twitter does not necessarily mean that there are a ton of people watching your show.

With that in mind, let’s put the magnifying glass on “Scream Queens.” The latest series from executive producer Ryan Murphy, despite the relentless hype and a cast built up of big names, only drew a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic to go with 4 million viewers. If this was a cable show, it’d be considered a pretty good draw; for a premiere on a major television network, it’s merely okay. The good news is that this is better than the 1.6 we saw for “Gotham” or the 1.1 that “Minority Report” received.

Ultimately, this rating is easily enough to keep “Scream Queens” on the air for the rest of the season, but let’s stop pretending now that this is a smash hit when the numbers just aren’t reflecting that.

ABC is a network that should be celebrating huge ratings at the moment, given that “The Muppets” started with a very impressive 2.8 rating. If most of those viewers stick around, this will be the closest thing to a comedy hit we’ve seen on a major network in a couple of years. The show did this without much of a lead-in, so ABC should be feeling really good about themselves.

One other clear winner at the moment is simply NBC, given that “The Voice” (3.4) held onto the majority of its audience. Not only that, but “Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris” continued to have a great time on its way to a 2.2. The show last night featured an appearance from Britney Spears, and you can see more on that in the video below.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVuOptBJjKI&list=PLAtxt_rmSGL59Qy0IAQtEgWstfkH8PmBk&index=2