Fox’s WWE SmackDown (1.0 adults 18-49 rating in Live+Same Day, 2.9 million viewers) was smacked down double digits from its premiere last week, which was a SmackDown 20th anniversary celebration featuring some of WWE’s biggest past and present stars. Still, it won the night for the network in adults 18-40 (Live+SD) and topped Friday for the second week in a row.
On The CW, Charmed and Dynasty returned, making their modest Friday night bows. Both were off a bit from last year’s premieres, and just below their season averages and finales. Charmed had an 0.2 18-49 rating and 700,000 viewers, down a tick from its Sunday night numbers, while Dynasty was on par with what Crazy Ex-Girlfriend averaged in the time slot last fall, scoring an 0.1 rating and 464,000 viewers.
The news was better for the CBS drama-laden lineup. Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. ticked up in total viewers and matched their demo scores from a week ago, with perennially strong Blue Bloods up by a tenth in the demo, scoring an 0.7 18-49 rating and 7.55 million total viewers, powering the CBS show to the Friday win in total viewership.
At NBC, The Blacklist was steady, coming in at 0.5 demo rating (same as its season premiere last week) and 3.78 million viewers. That provided a strong lead-in for the two-hour Dateline, which had a strong summer and continued in that pocket with an 0.6 and 3.73 million viewers.
ABC saw American Housewife hang steady at 0.5 and 3.44 million viewers. But Fresh Off The Boat slipped a tenth to 0.3 in the demo and averaged 2.33 million viewers, marking a new demo low for the series. That didn’t help 20/20, as its 0.4 was down a tenth from a week ago.