Agents of Shield has its season five premiere Friday and even though it would obviously rate lower than usual because of its move to Friday nights, it still held its own on its new night.
The two-hour premiere averaged a 0.7 rating in adults 18-49 (0.7 for the first hour, 0.6 for the second) and 2.55 million viewers, which is a bit better than the 0.5 averages for Once Upon a Time and Inhumans. The premiere is down from the 1.1 for the premiere last fall but in line with its 2016-17 season average of 0.7 on Tuesdays. A 0.7 demo rating on a Tuesday (for a big four network) isn’t too great but a 0.7 on a Friday night is actually pretty good. If it can maintain these numbers, the move could prove to be a smart one for ABC.
CBS led the night for scripted programming, although MacGyver (0.8, 6.67 million viewers) and Hawaii Five-0 (0.9, 8.58 million viewers) were each down a tenth of a point from their last episodes. Blue Bloods held steady at a 0.9 demo rating and 8.79 million viewers.
Blindspot rose a tenth to a 0.7 demo rating and 3.34 million viewers for NBC. Much like the Agents of Shield move for ABC, the Blindspot switch for NBC is proving to a wise choice as it was averaging this demo rating on Wednesday nights (not great) and has maintained that rating on Friday’s, where this is a solid number.
On FOX, The Exorcist was steady with a 0.4 demo rating and 1.23 million viewers. I’m still hoping these numbers are good enough for FOX to get a third season.
