This Is Us season 2 ratings records keep coming in — and this one’s massive
Per a new release from NBC, the show’s premiere episode in live+7 numbers drew almost 19.9 million viewers, which is “now NBC’s most-watched scripted series telecast, excluding post-Super Bowl shows, in 13 years, since “ER” the night of the “Frasier” finale, May 13, 2004 (predating Nielsen’s DVR measurement, 23.882 million).” Think about the current era of ratings where almost everyone watches shows late, often even later than a week, and there is so much competition out there across the board. The fact that This Is Us was able to somehow be better than anything in the past 13 years is utterly incredible in this measure.
Another thing worth noting here is with it drawing a 6.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic in this live+7 data — that is the best performance for a scripted premiere on NBC since the Heroes season 2 premiere ten years ago. Yep, at one point Heroes was an enormous hit. Remember how quickly Heroes: Reborn fizzled? Well, as it turns out that was a little bit of a bummer.
While we’d love to now say that we expect This Is Us season 2 to continue along some epic, record-breaking tear the next few weeks, we’re a little more diplomatic when it comes to the odds of that happening. Shows tend to perform a little bit better in premieres and finales, and with many shows the second-season premieres tend to be the peak of their audience as a whole. This challenge for This Is Us in season 2 is finding a way for it to exceed everyone’s expectations. If it’s just as good as the first season, there are still going to be some jerks out there who claim that the show has somehow lost a step. Why is that? Well, it’s mostly because that almost always happens with a show like this and when you’ve got a relatively finicky audience who likes to hate on things that aren’t new or fresh anymore.
Luckily, if there is one team of people we can count on to presumably break expectations it is Dan Fogelman and the entire team over there. Remember that they’ve done a great job with everything to date and this show is already so much stronger than anyone would have anticipated before it premiered on NBC last year.
What do you think about the latest This Is Us record?
Do you think that there are some others that could be announced before long? Be sure to share some more of your thoughts on the matter below! Also, check out the preview here for the next new This Is Us episode or like us on Facebook to get a little more news regarding this show and some of the others we cover at CarterMatt. (Photo: NBC.)