Thursday night saw the return of Will & Grace and it was a ratings win for NBC.
The show returned after 11-plus years with solid ratings Thursday. The show scored a 2.9 rating among adults 18-49 and a shade over 10 million viewers, the best non-NFL number of the night by a long shot. It was also the best performance by an NBC comedy (excluding post-Olympics episodes) since 2012.
Unfortunately, It did not, however, give much of a shine to NBC’s other comedies. Lead-out Great News (1.3 demo rating, 5.13 million viewers) had its best rating ever, but it also lost more than half of the W&G audience in adults 18-49. Superstore premiered to a 1.2 demo score and 4.57 million viewers, off 0.3 from last season’s debut and slightly ahead of its 2016-17 average. The good news, other than W&G, was The Good Place was even with last week’s premiere at 1.3 and 4.62 million viewers. Ending the night was Chicago Fire which scored a 1.5 demo rating and 7.18 million viewers, off 0.3 from its 2016 premiere but in line with its average last season.
On ABC, Grey’s Anatomy opened with a 2 hour season premiere to a 2.3 demo score and 7.95 million viewers, above its 2016-17 average and off a bit from last year’s premiere (2.5). How to Get Away with Murder,however had its lowest-rated premiere at 1.1 demo rating and 4.03 million viewers, below last year’s 1.4 and its season average of 1.3.
On Fox, Gotham (0.8 demo rating, 2.79 million viewers) slipped two tenths of a point vs. its premiere last week on FOX, but The Orville held steady at 1.1 demo score and 3.73 million viewers despite increased competition.
Check back next Thursday to see how your Thursday shows hold up in week 2!
