The Night Shift season 4 ratings hit high; Zoo rises; Big Brother 19 strong
Last night’s installment, an excellent hour directed by cast member Eoin Macken (read the full review over here, plus our full interview with Macken), ended up generating in total a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 4.45 million viewers. These are the highest totals in both metrics since the end of last August when season 3 came to a close. That season benefited more from a stronger lead-in, so we give the show all the credit in the world for continuing to improve as time goes on without the help of America’s Got Talent or some other sort of ratings machine.
One of the reasons why its numbers continue to improve, at least from our vantage point, is that more people are starting to figure out that Thursday night is when The Night Shift is airing. It doesn’t have the biggest promotional campaign behind it in the world, so it’s certainly feasible that it took fans a while to find it after spending more of their time away from the television for the first several weeks of the summer.
It’s still too early to say whether or not a season 5 renewal is coming, but with its improvement plus also strong DVR returns, we remain optimistic.
Good news elsewhere
This was a pretty solid night of ratings as a whole Thursday, given that Zoo also bounced back on CBS from a series-low outing to finish with a 0.6. We’re still not super optimistic about its future, even though it has the added benefit of a rich Netflix streaming deal that we’ve mentioned on here a few times. The streaming provider gets the episodes earlier than it does for most other shows, though it also has to pay more for it. This may offset some of the show’s costs and lower ratings.
Meanwhile, we do want to continue to give Big Brother 19 kudos for some incredible ratings consistency. Last night’s live eviction show generated in total a 1.9 rating, the #1 total for the night. Its ratings are pretty even in the demo this season versus season 18, and are up slightly in terms of total viewers. (We’re considering all three nights when making these declarations — the eviction shows are actually up so far in season 19 in both measurements.)
A few other decent performers last night were Hollywood Game Night with a 0.9 starting off Thursdays for NBC, and then The Gong Show holding at a 0.6 for its own new episode. Given how affordable these shows may be versus some scripted fare, it’s easy to bank on them coming back.
What did you watch on TV Thursday night? Be sure to share some of your thoughts/reactions now in the comments! (Photo: NBC.)