Elsbeth series premiere ratings strong at CBS

We’ll give CBS a lot of credit when it comes to their promotional campaign for Elsbeth, throwing the character just about everywhere. Sure, the Carrie Preston series had a built-in audience thanks to The Good Wife / The Good Fight, but the network didn’t rest on those laurels. They really pushed the title character and the show out to new viewers, really working to present it as the next great, super-fun crime procedural. Early reactions to the premiere are largely positive.

Now, we can also add to the mix now that CBS has a lot to celebrate when it comes to the ratings for the premiere! Per TVLine, the first episode delivered a strong 4.5 million live + same-day viewers, drawing an audience almost equal to So Help Me Todd the hour before. This is the sort of audience that makes us more optimistic that this can really deliver on the hype, and it also proves further the producing power of Robert and Michelle King.

After we’ve said all of that, let’s get into the part of this that remains baffling. Why in the world are we waiting until April 4 to see the second episode? In what universe does that make sense? We recognize that CBS has some things they are trying to avoid insofar as competition goes and there is also March Madness, but this is a tough way to build momentum. Basically, whatever marketing they did for the Elsbeth premiere is something they will have to replicate for episode 2.

Still, for the time being, we tend to think that some executives are now off somewhere doing cartwheels — they have to be thrilled with how the show has fared so far and now, we’ll just have to see how the rest of the season fares. We don’t think the style or substance of the story will change all that much — and nor does it really need to.

Related – Read more on the bizarre Elsbeth episode 2 choice

What did you think of the Elsbeth premiere last night, provided you watched it?

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