NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine returned Thursday for its Season 7 premiere, topping a slew of newcomers to the midseason landscape including the series debuts of CBS’ Edie Falco cop drama Tommy, NBC’s Fran Drescher comedy Indebted and the CW’s Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene.
Overall, Grey’s Anatomy was the night’s top-rated show, scoring a 1.1 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 5.47 million viewers, a tick fewer eyeballs than its lead-in Station 19 (0.9, 5.87M). Both were even compard with last week. ABC won the night overall in the demo, wrapping with A Million Little Things (0.7, 3.76M), up a tenth, at 10 PM.
CBS took the night in viewership led by Young Sheldon (1.0, 9.00M), steady and the most-watched show in Thursday’s primetime. The network’s comedy block included The Unicorn (0.7, 6.15M), which grew a tenth; Mom (0.7, 6.30M), which was even; and Carol’s Second Act (0.5, 4.80M), down a notch.
That paved the way for Tommy (0.4, 4.79M), which stars Emmy winner Falco as Abigail “Tommy” Thomas, the first female LAPD chief of police. Its debut grew the network’s 10 PM time slot by more than 1.5 million viewers compared with last week’s season finale of Evil, though it dipped a tenth in the demo by comparison.
In total viewers, Tommy was the No.1 program at 10 PM, scoring CBS’ biggest Live+Same Day audience in the hour this season.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s 8 PM debut (0.7, 2.67M) was followed by a second dose (0.5, 2.01M) at 8:30, which will be its regular time slot beginning next week; the resurrected series has already been renewed for an eighth season. The 8 PM showing was down five tenths from last year’s season premiere, after the Andy Samberg comedy had been rescued from Fox, but up two tenths from its Season 6 finale in May.
For NBC, Will & Grace (0.5, 2.33M) returned even from a week off and led into Indebted (0.4, 2.11M), which officially returns Drescher to broadcast sitcoms. Its debut was steady with the network’s time-slot averages this year. Law & Order: SVU (0.6, 3.24M) was even. It also held onto solid 90% of its lead-in.
The premiere of the CW’s Katy Keene (0.2, 660,000) comes after the network showed a vote of confidence in the spinoff with Riverdale/Archie Comics pedigree and Lucy Hale in the lead role, ordering an additional 13 episodes last month. Its debut numbers were off from Supernatural‘s usual numbers in the time slot, with comparisons tough against the network staple. Legacies (0.2, 620K) followed Thursday and also dipped in both metrics.
Fox’s flagship comedy Last Man Standing (0.8, 4.03M) grew a tenth and was followed by a steady showings a pair of freshmen, comedy Outmatched (0.6, 2.65M) and Deputy (0.6, 3.47M).
