Law & Order: SVU ratings rise; The Originals season 5 starts solid
Last night’s new episode drew its second-largest total audience of the year and, to go along with that, also tied its best demo rating of 2018 with a 1.4. If these don’t get the show a season 20, what will? SVU continues to perform very well; as a matter of fact, it’s actually up compared to season 18 in total viewers and almost even in the demo. Chicago PD also posted a 1.2 and it feels like almost a lock that it’s going to be coming back for another batch of episodes. (These two shows were aided somewhat this week by airing following The Voice, which aired on a special night.)
As for another notable highlight of the night, you gotta hand it to The Originals for a solid start! The series matched Riverdale with a 0.4 rating for its first episode of the final season, and it almost matched it in total viewers, as well. We do actually think with these numbers in mind that The Originals could have been renewed for another season but we suppose that it’s better to go out when the writers are really feeling like it’s the right time than running the show into the ground.
Finally, Criminal Minds drew a 1.0 rating and then a 0.9 for the final episodes of season 13. While these ratings are not tremendous by any means, they do serve as a good reminder that the show will at least perform on this level the majority of the time in which it is on the air. We think that stability goes a long way for a network like CBS, especially since Criminal Minds is also the beneficiary often of very good DVR ratings.
(Photo: NBC.)