Murphy Brown premiere ratings disappoint; Law & Order: SVU starts okay
The first ratings are in from Thursday night, and overall the new iteration of the classic sitcom ended up generating a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and also 7.42 million viewers. The total viewership isn’t bad for a multi-camera comedy, but you do need to remember that we’re speaking here about a premiere and the tendency is for ratings to fall after the first episode airs.
This actually isn’t the biggest ratings shock from our vantage point on the night — that instead goes to SWAT, which kicked off with just a 0.7 rating in the demo that has us at least slightly concerned for its future on the air.
As for some other noteworthy shows…
Law & Order: SVU – For its first two episodes in its new timeslot, the series averaged a 1.1 rating — it actually fared better in the second episode than the premiere, which suggests to us that there may be a shared audience with this show and also Grey’s Anatomy. As of right now, this season is down a little over 10% versus the season 19 average, but that’s not bad for a year-to-year decline and that is without even considering the time-period change.
The Good Place – Given that this is one of TV’s best shows, we would have loved for it to bring in more than a 1.0 and a 0.9 in the demo for its two-episode premiere. (For the record, we think that The Good Place would be helped by some Emmy love, but it has a harder time getting it because it airs on network TV.)
The Big Bang Theory – With a 2.1 rating, this was the biggest non-football show of the night … not that this should shock anyone. Still, the series isn’t the ratings monster it once was.
What did you watch on TV Thursday night? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments!
(Photo: NBC.)