Snapshot: New series Week 2: ABC’s Notorious (1.1 in 18-49, down -0.1 from fast national, even with final), Fox’s Pitch (1.1, down -0.1); Returning series all down, with the exception of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (2.4, even with its premiere fast national) and Fox’s Rosewood (0.8, up +0.1); Chicago Med (1.3) hits new series low; Grey‘s Anatomy (2.4, 8.34 million viewers) is highest-rated and most watched program of the night.
Rookies Notorious and Pitch and sophomore Rosewood got some much needed reprieve after a rough ratings start last Thursday. In their second outings, they faced lesser broadcast competition with reruns of CBS’ new shows vs. new Thursday Night Football (except for the CBS stations in Miami and Cincinnati; they carried the Miami Dolphins-Cincinnati Bengals game, which aired on NFL Network as part of the complex new Thursday NFL package.)
Rosewood did tick up from its dismal premiere (0.7 in 18-49 L+SD) to a 0.8 as more fans may have found it on the new night. The newbies did not improve on their slow start though they didn’t post major Week 2 drops either. Notorious (1.1) was down a tenth from the fast national for its series premiere, even with the final, and Pitch (1.0) was down a tenth week-to-week. Pitch still built on its Rosewood lead-in (albeit not as much as in Week 1).
That can’t be said about Notorious, which squandered more than half of its Grey’s Anatomy lead-in for a second consecutive week.
Grey’s continues to be solid as a rock in Season 13. After dominating Premiere Thursday as the highest-rated and most watched entertainment program, the medical drama did it again but not dropping a beat, matching its 2.4 fast national premiere rating, a rating point higher than the next series. Grey’s, which again is the most watched show on Thursday, was adjusted up to a 2.5 18-49 rating in the finals last week and will likely do it again this afternoon.
How To Get Away with Murder continues to do what it can with the Notorious lead-in, climbing again to a 1.3 in 18-49, off a tenth from last week. We will see how long ABC will give Notorious before it moves in to shore up HTGAWM.
The entire NBC lineup slipped. 8-9 PM comedies Superstore and The Good Place both logged a 1.2 in 18-49, down from last week’s 1.5 and 1.4, respectively (1.4 and 1.3 in the fast nationals before upward adjustments.) Neither is in danger as both have complete season orders (22 episodes for Superstore and 13 for The Good Place) and are solid in delayed viewing but NBC brass no doubt would like to see the ratings decline bottom out before crossing the 1 Live+same day mark.
Chicago Med (1.3) and The Blacklist (1.1) at 10 PM also slipped, by -0.1 and -0.2, respectively, though The Blacklist could cut the drop in half in the finals. For Chicago Med this represents a fresh L+SD series low after tying its previous low mark last week (1.4). It still won the 9 PM hour in total viewers.
With Thursday Night Football on CBS hiatus, ABC won the second Thursday of the season in adults 18-49 (1.6) and total viewers (5.8 million).
