Ratings: ‘Dancing with the Stars’ premiere strong, ‘American Ninja Warrior’ finale up

Ultimately, the ratings from last night were a tale of beginnings and endings, and depending on what you like to watch, there was probably a little bit of good news here or there.

Let’s begin now with “Dancing with the Stars,” which posted what looks on paper to be an incredibly impressive 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic for its premiere. However, you have to keep in mind that there were multiple markets, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, that preempted the show’s premiere for NFL football; with this being the first game for the Los Angeles Rams in years (even if it was a terrible game), we expect a big downward adjustment to around a 1.9 for the final figure. Still, that’s a good rating in line with some other recent performances from this show at around this time.

The news was a little bit more clear-cut for the “American Ninja Warrior” finale, but still for the most part good as the show ended up drawing a 1.7 rating, up slightly from what it posted previously. This was a pretty great season accented by Jessie Graff’s amazing run, and with that we’re glad to see it is renewed already for another batch of episodes.

Finally, the finale for “So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation” (0.6) was up slightly versus last week, but with this terrible theme we still question if the show really has good odds of being brought back for another run. It’s a bummer since we adore the show in its purest form.

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