Ratings: ‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 17 sets new high; ‘American Idol’ falls, ‘Second Chance’ has little chance

“Law & Order: SVU” continues to be the Energizer Bunny of TV shows. Even when you start to wonder whether or not it can keep its momentum going, it finds a way to shake things up just enough and deliver compelling television for both fans old and new. We haven’t made too much of this yet at CarterMatt, but it bears acknowledging: This is one of the few long-running shows out there to actually be up year-to-year right now in the 18-49 demographic.

Let’s dive into Wednesday night’s ratings to explain “SVU’s” feat even further.

The winners – “Townhouse Incident” was an episode heavily promoted as a key hour for Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson, and the marketing campaign clearly worked to get viewers. This “SVU” episode drew a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic, a season high and the show’s best rating since an episode in April 2015. This rating also helped “Chicago PD,” which drew its best rating since November 2014 with a 2.0. (“Chicago PD” is almost even with last year in the demo, which is also very impressive.)

Elsewhere on the schedule, hats off to “Criminal Minds,” which matched the “SVU” rating for its first episode of the new year, and the first in some time to feature the Spencer Reid character.

The losers – It’s hard to say “American Idol” is a loser since it was #2 on the night behind “Modern Family” (2.6) with a 2.5, but this is still a drop from the 3.0 it had for the premiere. We can say it much easier about “Second Chance,” which is proving to be no “Empire” in the same timeslot that the show had during the fall. Its 1.2 premiere rating is almost guaranteeing that it will not get another chance in the event that it premieres.

Also, it’s still sad that a show as good as “American Crime” is not getting more than a 1.1 rating.

Photo: NBC