Ratings: ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ huge, tops ‘Scandal’ season 4, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

We thought that ABC was going to have a hit with its new Viola Davis series “How to Get Away with Murder,” but who knew that the series was going to get away with such enormous numbers of its own?

The show premiered, at least in the preliminary numbers, to a whopping 3.8 in the 18-49 demographic, and this went along with a huge 14 million viewers. This tied it alongside “Scandal” for the #1 scripted show of the night, and with most of the reviews of the show positive, it may be able to keep these figures up. If nothing else, ABC should announce a full-season pickup sooner rather than later, and Shonda Rhimes may be named Programming Head by the time all this is over. (To be fair, “How to Get Away with Murder” actually is not run by Shonda, just executive-produced.)

Even for “Grey’s Anatomy” in its new 8:00 p.m. timeslot, the show still managed a solid 3.0. That’s the best number for ABC there in we don’t know how long. All of that #TGIT marketing really paid off for ABC, who by and large is having a good fall so far with “black-ish” doing strong and “Forever” showing staying power after a weak premiere.

What makes these numbers all the more impressive are that they were competing against Thursday Night Football over on CBS, which is a huge draw already just a few weeks in. We do imagine that “Grey’s Anatomy” will have a harder test come October, when “The Big Bang Theory” premieres. Meanwhile, we question moving “The Blacklist” up against “Scandal” early next year; that seems dubious to put one great show against another.

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Photo: ABC