Ratings: The Amazing Race 29 premiere okay; Chicago Med falls sharply

What were The Amazing Race 29 premiere ratings? While we’re not going to say that they’re shattering any headlines, we do think that they’re reasonable and somewhat in line with what we would have expected going into the episode.

Overall, the reality competition series generated a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is a decline from last season but better than how Training Day was performing within this spot. It was #1 for the timeslot both in the demo and in total viewers — it may not have been an overwhelming victory for CBS, but it was a victory nonetheless. Given that this is a show that’s fairly inexpensive to produce in comparison to some other scripted shows, that may also be another reason for some hope.

Unfortunately, we’re not going to know its full renewal future for some time, so our advice here is that if you want it to stick around, keep watching it live! Anything is possible, and the ratings could’ve been lower for the premiere just because the premiere date was moved up pretty recently. Not everyone out there who loves the show may have known about it.

For the record, CBS may not announce the show’s future until we get to May upfronts — heck, it could be later than that given that the season’s starting so late this year.

What happened to Chicago Med?

This is one of the stranger ratings drops we’ve see, since it feels almost like people forgot to come back after the hiatus. Thursday’s episode generated a 0.9 rating, which is the lowest rating for the entire series to date.

Do we think that it’s a major cause for concern yet? Not really. It’s just one week, and with that it feels wrong to complain on some sort of extreme level about it. The big thing to watch now is if it recovers when it’s on a night where there is a new episode of Superstore, and where Powerless performs a little bit better as a lead-in. NBC loves the franchise, and with that in mind, it’s hard to really envision a scenario where we can imagine them wanting to do away with the show at this point. Its biggest challenge this year is just airing on a rather difficult night without much support.

What did you watch on Thursday night, and what’s your take on the Amazing Race 29 premiere ratings? Share now in the comments!