Like a Las Vegas boxing match, CBS only had The Good Fight on for one night but turns out The Good Wife spinoff doesn’t quite pack much of a punch – at least among adults 18-49.
Premiering at 8 PM on Sunday with a special preview and starting with dismay at the inauguration of Donald Trump, the Christine Baranski-led legal drama snagged a soft 0.7/2 in the key demo. After last night, TGF will now only be seen on CBS All Access – which showed the second episode on Sunday too.
While comparisons are a bit stretched, last night’s TGF debut was down 46% from the series finale of TGW’s seven-season run on May 8 last year at 9 PM. It is also down 63% in the 18-49s from the September 22, 2014 launch of Madam Secretary in that 9 PM slot. To add one more stat, TGF dropped 30% from lead-in 60 Minutes (1.0/4) – which itself was down 20% from its pre-Grammy Awards position of last week.
With a total viewership of 7.16 million, The Good Fight was the third most watched show of the mainly sagging night after 60 Minutes (10.25 million) and NCIS: Los Angeles (8.48 million). The NCIS spinoff didn’t have a great night either, with a 21% decline from its last original of January 29 at 8 PM. Ending CBS’s night, Elementary (0.7/2) was even with last new show of three weeks ago.
Maybe it was the holiday weekend but none of the Big 4 made it to a 1.0 average with ABC topping the night demowise with a 0.9/3. CBS won the viewership category with a relatively limp 7.73 million tuning in for a Sunday. Only Fox had a full slate oppose the House of Moonves last night, but with the NBA All-Star Game on TNT just after 8 PM, The Walking Dead on AMC at 9 PM and HBO’s star powered Big Little Lies debuting at the same time, there was a lot of action up and down the dial – just not much of it good on broadcast.
Over on ABC, a new and down 32% To Tell The Truth (0.7/2) followed airing of the 2010 Disney flick Tangled (1.0/3) The Disney-owned net started off its night with a new America’s Funniest Home Videos (0.9/4), which was down 22% from its last original.
NBC was in full self celebration mode with its The Paley Center Salutes NBC’s 90th Anniversary (0.7/2) special from 8 – 11 PM. Fox was full-in with its regular animated slate with The Simpsons (1.1/4) and the season finale of Son of Zorn (0.7/2) – which were down and up a tenth respectively. Originals of Family Guy (1.0/3) and the Annie Award winning Bob’s Burgers (0.9/3) followed – both of which were up a tenth.
BTW – if you didn’t know the West won the NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans 192- 182 over the East. However, after a show stopping performance at last week’s Grammys, it was Beyoncé who really held court as she, daughter Blue Ivy and Jay-Z watched from their VIP seats.
Have a good Presidents’ Day.
