Whether you loved it or hated it, Disney Presents: The Little Mermaid Live! certainly got the attention of television watchers last night as it won Tuesday night by a wide margin for ABC and likely sets up future film/live musical hybrids in the future.
On ABC, the network’s live musical special scored a dominant victory Tuesday night with a 2.6 average rating in adults 18-49 – double what any of the night’s other primetime shows scored in the demo – and 8.98 million viewers Those numbers make The Little Mermaid Live! the highest-rated live TV musical event on any network since FOX’s Grease Live! back in January 2016, and the highest-rated entertainment broadcast on any of the networks since the series finale of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory back in May. Emergence sort of benefits from a big lead-in but it lost a lot of the demo audience in the process. Emergence was up two-tenths from the 0.5 demo rating it posted for its last airing with a 0.7 demo score but it was steep fall from what the live event eared. 3.47 million viewers tuned in which is the best showing since its series premiere so we’ll have to wait and see if ABC will call that a win.
On NBC, their lineup likely faltered week-to-week due to ABC’s live event as The Voice kicked things off by ticking up from its 1.2 rating last Tuesday to a 1.3 demo score and 8.11 million viewers this time around. The same could not be said for This is Us (1.3, 6.69 million viewers) or New Amsterdam (0.7, 5.01 million viewers), both of which slipped one-tenth from their previous ratings.
On CBS, NCIS returned from a week off with a 1.0 demo rating, down a tenth from its last episode’s 1.1, but with the largest audience of any of the night’s primetime broadcasts (10.74 million viewers). FBI (0.8, 8.54 million viewers) and NCIS: New Orleans (0.7, 6.61 million viewers), which featured the departure of a series regular, also returned from their one-week break and stayed even with their most recent outings.
On The CW, The Flash (0.4, 1.20 million viewers) and Arrow (0.2, 620,000 viewers) each ticked down a tenth week-to-week, likely due to some of the younger-skewing audience checking out The Little Mermaid Live!
On Fox, The Resident returned from a week off with the same 0.7 demo rating and 3.42 million viewers as its last original broadcast. On the other hand, Empire returned by slipping one-tenth from its last outing’s 0.8 to a season-low 0.7 demo score and 2.49 million viewers.
| Time | Show | Network | Adults 18-49 rating/share | Viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 PM | Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time | ABC | 2.3/12 | 14.82 |
| 8:00 PM | Chicago Med | NBC | 1.1/6 | 7.41 |
| 8:00 PM | Undercover Boss | CBS | 0.7/3 | 4.23 |
| 8:00 PM | Flirty Dancing | FOX | 0.3/2 | 1.42 |
| 9:00 PM | Modern Family | ABC | 1.5/7 | 6.40 |
| 9:00PM | Chicago Fire | NBC | 1.1/6 | 7.91 |
| 9:00 PM | Criminal Minds (9-11 p.m.) | CBS | 0.7/4 | 4.66 |
| 9:00 PM | Almost Family | FOX | 0.3/2 | 1.01 |
| 9:30 PM | Single Parents | ABC | 0.9/5 | 3.40 |
| 10:00 PM | Chicago P.D. | NBC | 1.0/6 | 7.03 |
| 10:00 PM | Stumptown | ABC | 0.5/3 | 2.73 |
