Ratings: Madam Secretary 100th episode posts season high

We felt fairly confident going into the 100th episode of Madam Secretary that the ratings were going to be solid. After all, CBS set the show up to succeed! While it did air on December 23 — hardly a great day for television — it did air at an earlier timeslot following a big NFL game and 60 Minutes. Basically, it had the best lead-in that it’s had in quite some time, and the scheduling decision on the part of the network clearly paid off.

Related Video – Check out more thoughts on the 100th episode below! Meanwhile, remember that you can subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube to get some other TV discussions!

Last night’s milestone episode “Family Separation” ended up posting a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic, making it the top-rated episode of the season by a fairly solid margin. While it was not the most-watched episode of the season in early live+same-day estimates, typically the network cares more about the demo than anything and it performed very well across the board. It’s enough to make you remember that Madam Secretary could perform a lot better if it wasn’t airing at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time for most of the year.

So what does this mean for the long-term future of Madam Secretary on CBS? There are a few things that need to be determined there still. For starters, the viewership at the moment is such that it doesn’t inspire extreme confidence week to week, but it’s at least solid and it performs well in DVR viewing and streams. We also do think that it helps the show that it’s rather-different than most of the other series that are out there on CBS. It’s political, but it doesn’t discuss politics all that much in a partisan way. It’s more about the issues of the job and how Elizabeth McCord can make the world better. It’s also one of the few female-fronted dramas that CBS has, and we do think that continuing to have this representation and this voice on the network is incredibly important to its long-term success.

In the end, we’re crossing our fingers for more Madam Secretary in the future, but we’ve also got plenty more to check out in the present including the second part of the “Family Separation” story. Remember what happened to Elizabeth with the arrest at the end of Sunday’s episode … there is a lot of drama that is still going to be coming up on this show in the new year.

Related News – Be sure to get some other information right now regarding Madam Secretary and what could be coming up next in part 2!

What do you think about some of the Madam Secretary 100th episode ratings? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: CBS.)