Should Young Sheldon episode 2 have high ratings expectations?

Young Sheldon episode 2 is going to air on CBS Thursday night at 8:30 eastern Time. With its big premiere in the rear-view mirror, should CBS have really high hopes for the show?

There’s no denying that from the moment that Young Sheldon aired on CBS earlier this fall it was an instant and enormous success. It started out with big numbers in the form of a 3.8 rating and it retained almost the entirety of the lead-in from The Big Bang Theory. That show is the biggest comedy on CBS and the biggest one on all of TV, so that gave Young Sheldon a great start. It was so great that it got a 22 episode order from CBS right off the bat.

Now looking at episode 2, it’s time to dial things back a little bit and not be as enthusiastic about the ratings. Why? There are a wide array of different reasons. For one, you’re looking at a show that had a really big hiatus from the end of the first episode to where we are now. We’re talking about more than a month, almost an eternity for new TV shows. It doesn’t matter that this one in particular has a franchise name attached to it.

Also, there’s another issue in that it’s coming on at a new night for the first time. How it will do on Thursday? It’ll probably be strong just because the Big Bang Theory is on the air then, but you can’t just bank on people liking both shows or them not turning over to Grey’s Anatomy or Gotham at 8:30. With the lack of a sample size it’s smart to take a cautious approach around Young Sheldon episode 2.

Then, there is also one other issue. You have to consider what the reaction of the audience was episode one! While many critics out there did praise the series and its thought-provoking approach, there were people who were confused by the fact that he was a very different sort of show than The Big Bang Theory. There was no live audience, no laugh track, and with Young Sheldon there was a deviation from the tradition set-ups and jokes. Hopefully audiences can see past that, but we wouldn’t be surprised if this latest episode generated somewhere around a 2.4 2.5 in the 18-49 demographic. CBS should be happy with that – it could be so much worse.

What do you think the Young Sheldon episode 2 ratings are going to be on CBS when it airs? Be sure to share below, and head over to the link here if you want to check out some news on what the story of this episode will be. We will have more coverage of the show soon.

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