Ratings: Almost Family off to so-so start; Stumptown, SEAL Team steady

The first ratings for Wednesday, October 2 are in, and the first thing worth wondering about was simply this: Did Almost Family sink or swim?

We had a lot of curiosity about this show going into the proceedings last night and, now that we’ve seen the numbers, there’s a lot to be excited about here. As a whole,  Almost Family ended up generating a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which would be great were it not for the fact that  The Masked Singer beforehand generated a 1.9. Basically, this show lost over half of its lead-in … and that’s for the premiere. That’s not a great start, and it makes us think that Fox would’ve been better off either airing comedies or another reality game-show hybrid following their big hit. The viewership between  The Masked Singer and Almost Family just may not be altogether similar. This could be proof of it.

Anyhow, if Almost Family does end up generating similar ratings the rest of the way, it could still have a future. Yet, remember that the majority of new shows do tend to fall around 15% from the first to second week.

As for some other notable numbers from last night…

Stumptown – ABC promoted the heck out of their new Cobie Smulders vehicle and for at least last night, it’s worked out. While it did lose almost 15% of its total audience from the premiere, it was steady with a 0.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic. It’s not killing it, but it’s far from falling apart in week two.

SEAL Team – Meanwhile, the David Boreanaz series ended up drawing a 0.7 rating in the demo and also just over 5.2 million live viewers for its premiere. While it’s down slightly in the demo versus the season 2 average, it was up versus most of the episodes this past spring. The total audience, meanwhile, is actually an improvement over both last year’s premiere and the season 2 average in that measurement.

SWAT – Finally, the season 3 premiere of the Shemar Moore drama drew a 0.6 rating and just over 4 million viewers, a decline in both measurements versus both the season 2 premiere and season 2 overall. We can’t say that we’re shocked, since this is a new timeslot and not a great one — just reemember that it’s airing against both Stumptown and Chicago PD, shows that could have a somewhat similar audience.

What did you watch on Wednesday night? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and remember to stick around for more news. (Photo: Fox.)