If there is anything reliable about Thursday night programming it’s that Grey’s Anatomy leads scripted programming while Thursday Night Football dominates the overall ratings. Thursday continued to be a rough night for new shows with most of them struggling to find an audience.
FOX’s broadcast of the Thursday Night Football game between the Eagles and the Packers topped the night, averaging a 3.9 rating among adults 18-49 with 12.71 million viewers. It, unsurprisingly, won the night in both measures by a wide margin.
For scripted programming, Grey’s Anatomy led the pack with its season 16 premiere raking in a 1.5 demo rating with 6.46 million viewers, down just a bit from its previous season’s overall averages (1.6, 6.78 million). The season 2 premiere of A Million Little Things followed with a 1.0 demo rating and 4.99 million viewers. The series was relatively steady with its series premiere last season which scored a 1.1 demo rating and 5 million viewers. The season premiere of the final season of How to Get Away with Murder ended the night for ABC with a 0.6 demo rating and 2.43 million viewers, down from its fifth season’s 0.7 and 2.84 million viewer averages.
NBC had a very mixed bag of a night for its programming. Let’s start with the good news: Superstore returned with a 0.8 demo rating and 2.88 million viewers, on par with its 2018-19 season averages. The Good Place, which is in its final season, scored a 0.7 demo rating and 2.42 million viewers. Although down a bit from its season average, the performance was on par with what it scored for its season finale last season. Law & Order: SVU also hit a 0.7 demo rating and 3.84 million viewers, also down a little from its season average but on par with its season finale as well.
That’s where the good news ends for NBC as none of their new series for the night made an impression. NBC’s new pair of freshman comedies, Perfect Harmony and Sunnyside, both premiered to disappointing ratings. At 8:30 PM, Perfect Harmony posted only a 0.5 demo score with 2.6 million viewers, while Sunnyside came in even lower with a 0.4 demo rating and 1.79 million viewers in the 9:30 PM time slot.
CBS has a rough night on Thursday as well. Young Sheldon, airing with the benefit of The Big Bang Theory lead-in this season, drew a 1.1 demo rating and 8.24 million viewers. The demo rating represents a series low for the third season comedy. Following Young Sheldon, The Unicorn got off to an OK start in the 8:30 PM time slot with a 0.8 demo rating and 6.04 million viewers. The season 7 premiere of Mom maintained The Unicorn’s 0.8 demo score and rose a bit in total viewers (6.22 million). The performance from Mom was down a bit from its season average. The premieres of Carol’s Second Act and Evil scored lower with Second Act getting a 0.7 demo rating and 5.97 million viewers while Evil fared even worse with a 0.6 demo score and 4.56 million viewers.
Thursday looks like it’s going to be a rough night if some of these numbers hold. I would say the new series are already in danger but the threshold for live ratings is much different nowadays as network TV continues to struggle.
