FOX got the New Year’s present it wanted. (Well, mostly.)
DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2).
Ratings analysis and comparisons follow the chart.
FOX: The network is reporting that according to its accelerated adjusted ratings, EMPIRE premiered even higher than the morning charts indicated, with a tremendous 3.8 rating. That ties it with HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER as the season’s #1 debut. Even better, the rating remained steady throughout the hour, which bodes very well for EMPIRE being more than a flash in the pan. FOX desperately needed this, and the only negative part of the night was that part of the reason EMPIRE looked so good was that it rose 0.6 from the season premiere of AMERICAN IDOL (which also gained 0.1 in “final” numbers to 3.2). That was the lowest season premiere ever for IDOL, down an extremely ugly 1.5 from last year’s premiere. It seems clear that IDOL has not reached bottom in its quick descent from TV’s penthouse.
CBS: THE MENTALIST moved to its presumable final timeslot, and lost 0.1 from its last Sunday airing to 1.3. The PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS, airing against EMPIRE, lost 0.6 from last year to 1.8.
ABC: THE MIDDLE and THE GOLDBERGS were strong, respectively up 0.1 (to 2.3) and 0.3 (to 2.5) to season highs. MODERN FAMILY rose 0.1 to 3.2, but BLACK-ISH lost 0.2 to a new low 2.1, possibly negatively affected by EMPIRE. Reruns of Sunday’s GALAVANT episodes were at 1.0/0.7.
NBC: THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA was up 0.1 to 1.3, SVU rose 0.3 to 1.7, and CHICAGO PD was up 0.1 to 1.6.
CW: Still in reruns at 0.2/0.4.
All the networks except CW are new tonight, with NBC featuring the (final) return of PARENTHOOD to the schedule.
COMPARISONS TO SIMILAR NIGHTS: Preliminary adult 18-49 ratings versus the same night last year and same night last week.
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