Ratings (January 2): Chicago Med soars; Ellen’s Game of Games instant hit

NBC has found itself another unscripted behemoth, and this time around it’s none other than Ellen’s Game of Games. In the two hours in which the series aired on Tuesday night, CarterMatt saw the game show draw in total some of the biggest ratings we’ve seen in primetime for a show of its kind in quite a while.

How great are these ratings? Think in terms of a 2.3 average in the 18-49 demographic over the course of its two episodes. That easily made the show the #1 program of the night, and some of the success of the show bled over to Chicago Med to boot. Tuesday night’s new episode generated a season-high 1.5 rating, which shows that some of our fears about the show airing without This Is Us before it were fairly unfounded. All Chicago Med really needs is a good lead-in and it can score great numbers. It’s not some hyper-depressing drama that won’t retain viewers like what we saw with Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders a little bit earlier in the year.

So, for now, we imagine that an NBC executive is off somewhere giving high-fives at 30 Rock. This is one of those few networks that finds a way to make things work no matter what time of the year it is.

Was NBC the only winner last night? Read on and find out…

Related – Is someone in danger of losing their job on Chicago Med?

Over on Fox, Lethal Weapon managed to improve to a 1.1 rating; this carried over well into the premiere of LA to Vegas, which kept that entire performance. Is that impressive? Sure, but the larger question here comes down to whether or not these viewers stick around for week 2. Reception to the premiere was somewhat mixed so this could easily be one of those situations where the numbers don’t pan out to mean much of anything.

Meanwhile, CBS saw solid performances from NCIS (1.5), Bull (1.2), and NCIS: New Orleans (1.0). None of these three shows really wavered all that much, but we’re not too shocked about that given that they’re almost always steady as a rock. There’s no reason to think that things will be different for them for the rest of the season.

Related – Is Lasalle facing a big decision for his career on NCIS: New Orleans?

What do you think about the state of the Chicago Med season 3 ratings? Do you think that this gets us closer to a season 4 renewal? Share in the comments below!

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