Ratings: God Friended Me, NCIS: Los Angeles boost renewal odds

We do think that Sunday night proved to be a fairly interesting test for some various primetime shows in the ratings — and for a number of different reasons. For starters, there was no clear lead-in on the night for many of these shows (other than on Fox), and you could’ve argue that the most-NFL hangover could have damaged some of these series in a pretty big way.

Ratings Video – Want to understand better how primetime ratings work? Be sure to check out our video below! Also, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for some other insight and daily TV news.

Let’s start with God Friended Me, largely because this is a show that has been at the center of many questions. Could it survive without capitalizing on big lead-ins? Last night was a good test given that it drew a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic and over 8.2 million viewers — its second-highest viewer total since October. Given that there was no NFL support base (at least for a few hours leading up to the episode — the playoffs ended earlier in the afternoon on CBS), this is something worthy of celebration.

Meanwhile, the good news also carried over to NCIS: Los Angeles, which posted almost entirely the same ratings and viewership as God Friended Me. We think that both of these shows are facing very good odds of coming back for another season — especially if these trends continue. For God Friended Me, its biggest challenge is now going to be convincing viewers to come back in February, at the earliest, after a long hiatus due to the NFL and some awards shows.

Overall, Sunday actually proved to be a fairly good one for all of primetime TV — even Shark Tank and America’s Funniest Home Videos performed well on ABC and there was no lead-in there at all via even the smallest residual programming.

How well did Fox’s shows fare?

Well, The Simpsons tentatively has posted its highest ratings of the season in a 3.8 thanks in part to airing right after football — but that’s also why we put somewhat of an asterisk by this number. There is a chance that there will be a little bit of a fluctuation here when some of the final numbers come in.

The season finale of Rel, thanks to all of the carryover, did actually end up posting its best ratings since the premiere with a 1.1 … but we still don’t think that this is going to be enough in order to save the show.

Related News – Be sure to get some more speculation on the future of God Friended Me

What do you think about the latest ratings for God Friended Me and NCIS: Los Angeles? Share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: CBS.)