USA TODAY International Edition
Early hits and misses of the fall season
‘ Blindspot’ is bright spot; NFL and CBS win premiere week
One week into the new season, the broadcast networks can count a few promising starts, and several clunkers.
That’s pretty much the case each year, only this time the math is complicated by an even greater percentage of delayed viewership on DVRs and online, which stalls judgments on new series.
NBC’s Blindspot is among the early freshmen standouts. The thriller has the benefit of the network’s best time slot, behind
The Voice on Mondays. While the show averaged 10.6 million viewers last Monday, still below
The Blacklist’s early performance in 2013, by Thursday that total had climbed to an impressive 15.2 million.
CBS’ Life in Pieces, also in a protected Monday slot ( behind
The Big Bang Theory) was solid, though it had far less delayed viewing, while CBS movie sequel
Limitless and ABC’s The Muppets, both on Tuesdays, also posted promising starts.
Early- season turkeys included NBC’s Thursday drama The Player; Fox’s movie sequel Minority
Report, which claimed just 3.1 million viewers Monday; and horror- comedy Scream Queens, which notched 4 million Tuesday. Though that figure had climbed to 7.3 million by Friday ( including 1 million online streams) and was pronounced by Fox “a model for contemporary viewership,” it’s still a weak showing for the opener of a heavily promoted new series from producer Ryan Murphy, whose American Horror Story did better on cable’s FX network.
Other shows occupy a middle ground: ABC’s Quantico claimed 7.1 million viewers Sunday, which looks impressive only when compared with Revenge, which it replaced. And NBC’s Heroes Reborn averaged 6.1 million Thursday ( climbing to 8.7 million by Sunday), matching the franchise’s last premiere in 2009.
Some things don’t change: The top three shows among all viewers last week were NBC’s Sunday
Night Football and CBS’ The Big Bang Theory and NCIS, just like last year, with Fox’s Empire close behind. Among young- adult viewers, NFL also remained tops, followed by Empire and Big Bang. Helped by a better Thursday
Night Football matchup, CBS roughly is flat vs. last year, and has again won premiere week in total viewers, while NBC claimed the young- adult crown for the fourth consecutive year, also assisted by Sunday NFL games. NBC, ABC and Fox are down 10% to 20% from last fall’s premiere week and in early results have suffered among viewers ages 18 to 34.