Snoop Dogg was in the studio, reconciliations were attempted and divorce papers were served on Empire (1.8/4) last night but a separation from the Fox hip hop drama’s once blockbuster status seems to be in effect now.
Already hitting new lows repeatedly in recent weeks, Empire took a 14% drop among adults 18-49 on Wednesday to fall to a new low. After nearly two years of an unbeaten streak, last night was the first time Empire has gone below a 2.0 in the demo and saw Fox, which had Shots Fired (0.8/3) the same as last week, suffer a rare Wednesday defeat in the 18-49s overall. With Survivor (1.8/8) up a tenth from last week’s fast affiliates and even with its final numbers, Empire wasn’t even the lone top show of the night.
Additionally, in a direct flip of last week’s overall result, CBS took the demo top spot with a 1.4/6 to Fox’s 1.3/4. In an outcome that has been familiar in the past weeks, the House of Moonves was the winner in the viewership category with a 6.78 million result to Fox’s fourth place 4.34 million.
As a lot of the Big 4 found last night, certainly part of decline had to with the Terrance Howard and Taraji P. Henson-led series facing a undoubtedly well watched NBA Playoffs doubleheader on TNT. The reigning champs Cavaliers dispensed with the Raptors in the East and the Spurs triumphed over the Rockets in the West in Game 2 of their respective rounds in back-to-back face-offs. Still, the NBA or even those NHL playoffs can’t be the causes of the low of last night as Empire’s numbers have been going down almost steadily since the show returned from its Season 3 winter break on March 22.
With that courtside action in play, Empire wasn’t the only series low of the night as Modern Family (1.6/6) took a 16% demo drop from its last original of April 5. In fact, the Emmy winning comedy wasn’t even the only low on ABC as 10 PM’s Designated Survivor (0.9/4) fell 18% from its April 26 airing to hit a season low.
Otherwise, the Disney-owned net saw comedies The Goldbergs (1.4/6) and Speechless (1.2/5) even with last week. At 9:30 PM, black-ish (1.2/4) was also the same as its fast affiliates of last week, which rose a tenth in later results.
Besides that Survivor bump, CBS resisted ratings gravity and the pull of the NBA Playoffs as Criminal Minds (1.4/5) and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (0.9/4) were up a tenth too. An LA pre-emption may see the CW’s numbers change later but right now Arrow (0.5/2) is even with its April 27 show while The 100 (0.4/2) is up a tenth.
NBC’s Wednesday started off the same as last week’s with Blindspot (0.9/3) but took a downward turn of a tenth each for Law & Order: SVU (1.0/4) and Chicago P.D. (1.1/4). On the upside, as it were, the NBC Windy City show was the winner of its 10 PM slot.
