Ratings: Blue Bloods & The Blacklist steady; Last Man Standing wins

The official ratings are in for last night’s television lineup, and we do think that there are a lot of networks that have something to be happy about. That’s a pretty rare phenomenon for 2019, no?

Related Blue Bloods video! – Check out more insight on last night’s episode below! Also, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for more.

Ultimately, Blue Bloods was the big winner of Friday in total viewers with almost nine million total viewers; meanwhile, Last Man Standing won the demo prize (the more important one for advertisers) with a 1.2 rating. Both of these shows are going to be back — neither renewal is official, but we think that this is one of those occasions where you can feel really confident based on performance and performance alone.

What’s interesting here is that even with all of the competition, everyone still had something to be excited about from last night. The Blacklist kept the entirety of its 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic from its most-recent episode. Meanwhile, Blindspot actually posted its best rating of the season in a 0.6 — clearly, there’s something good that comes from pairing it and Blindspot on the same night together.

Meanwhile, there’s still some good news for CBS as MacGyver and Hawaii Five-0 ended up posting a 0.8 and 0.9 rating, respectively.

Why all the improvements?

With Last Man Standing and the CBS shows, a reasonable explanation is that the recent resolution of the Tribune Media – Charter Spectrum carriage dispute led to more viewers. This is the first time in 2019 that every CBS and Fox affiliate had a chance to actually broadcast across the full range of programming providers. We definitely think that this is something that matters tremendously at this time of year especially when there are a lot of people home for the winter. Typically, we consider the best ratings of a given season to come during premiere week; yet, with Friday shows we tend to think that this is the sweet spot. Viewers who typically go outside and enjoy nature in the fall and spring have a chance to do something indoors in the winter. Why not strike while the iron’s hot? That’s why we don’t understand why some shows, like Blue Bloods, are going to be in repeats next week unless it’s just a production issue and making sure everything is on-schedule.

Of course, we’ll continue to monitor Friday ratings the remainder of the season!

What did you think about the ratings from last night’s lineup? Share now in the comments. (Photo:NBC.)