Ratings: Last Man Standing season 8 premiere, Deputy on Fox

Last Man Standing

The first Thursday ratings are in for 2020, and we’d say, once more, that it’s a mixed bag. It’s weird to look across the entire broadcast schedule and recognize that not a single show managed a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic. With the current TV climate, we imagine that this is going to happen more and more.

The good news for Last Man Standing is that it tied the What is Jeopardy? special for #1 on the night with a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic. It’s always good to be #1, though we did personally hope that the premiere numbers would be a tick better. It’s a steep drop from the season 7 premiere ratings, but that was to be expected since season 7 premiered after a long save-our-show campaign and a revival from Fox. The positive news is that this is a similar rating to what Last Man Standing drew at the end of season 7, and it’s a decline of just over 17% from last season’s average. (Remember, that average was skewed slightly because of that big premiere in September 2018.)

So long as Last Man Standing maintains a 0.8-0.9 rating for much of the season, we do feel reasonably hopeful that it will get a renewal — even if that means airing from January ’til May in future seasons because of NFL programming.

Related NewsCheck out more of what’s coming next on Last Man Standing

As for some other ratings news, the premiere of Deputy after the Tim Allen sitcom generated a 0.7 rating — that’s far from spectacular, but if it can hold that average, it at least could have a chance at sticking around. The show’s of a genre that tends to be fairly loyal, so we think it will have at least some retention. In general, though, the new iteration of Fox needs to find some more hits after Almost Family disappointed — Prodigal Son is a solid-enough hit, but with Empire ending, there’s only so long that they can rely on The Masked Singer to generate most of their mainstream buzz. Deputy could turn into something steady for them, but based on the premiere ratings alone, it’s not going to move the needle all that much.

What did you end up watching on TV Thursday night?

Be sure to share in the comments, and also be sure to stick around in the event you want some other news regarding the shows mentioned here. (Photo: Fox.)

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