NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and CBS’ “Young Sheldon” reached a settlement for first in the key demo in Thursday night ratings, per official Nielsen live plus same-day figures. The flagship procedural and “The Big Bang Theory” prequel drew 0.56 in the advertiser-friendly 18-49 demographic.
Overall, however, it was NBC that cracked the case with an overall network rating of 0.49 thanks to its popular “Law & Order” flagship franchise.
Here’s how the rest of the broadcast networks stacked up in ratings:
As mentioned, NBC won the night with its new episodes of “L&O,” all of whose programs saw a two-tenths jump in ratings from the week prior. Starting with the original show at 8 p.m., “Law & Order” drew 0.48 in the demo and 4.2 million viewers on average. An hour later, “SVU” received 0.56 in ratings and 4.4 million total average viewers. Closing the investigation at 10 p.m., “Organized Crime” netted 0.45 in the demo and a total average viewership of 3.2.
Meanwhile, CBS topped the class in total viewers, leading the night with 5.1 million watchers on average. Shows “Young Sheldon,” “Ghosts” and “So Help Me Todd” all saw viewership growth in the several hundreds of thousands from the week before. At 8 p.m., “Young Sheldon” got 0.56 in the demo and 7.1 million viewers on average, the most of the night and any network. An hour-and-a-half later, “Ghosts” emerged with 0.53 in ratings and 6.8 million total average viewers. “So Help Me Todd” netted 0.33 in the demo and 4.6 million viewers on average. At 10 p.m., “CSI: Vegas” received a 0.28 ratings score and averaged 3.6 million viewers, winning its time period in the number of watchers.
ABC was second in ratings, with a 0.42 ratings score. At 8 p.m., “Station 19” heated up the night with a score of 0.53 and 3.9 million total average viewers. Then, an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” scrubbed its way to 0.46 in the demo and 3.5 million viewers on average. At 10 p.m., the Hilary Swank journalist drama “Alaska Daily” scooped up 0.26 in the demo and 2.9 million viewers on average.
Second in viewership was NBC, with 3.9 million on average, followed by ABC, which drew 3.4 million. Third in ratings was CBS, which netted 0.39 in the key demo.
Fox was fourth in both ratings and total average viewership, receiving 0.35 in the demo and averaging 1.7 million. “Hell’s Kitchen” cooked up 0.46 and 2.1 million viewers on average. Rounding out the night were airings of “Welcome to Flatch” and “Call Me Kat,” the latter of which saw a slight bump in both the demo and total viewership following the death of star Leslie Jordan, whom the episode paid tribute to via a memorial montage. The former drew 0.21 in the demo and 925,000 viewers on average. “Call Me Kat” netted 0.27 in ratings and 1.4 million total average viewers.
The CW came fifth in the demo and viewership, at 0.05 and 662,000, with back-to-back hour-long airings of “Walker” and its prequel “Walker: Independence.” The former drew 0.07 and 801,000 total average viewers, while the latter received 0.04 and 524,000.
Neither The CW nor Fox air primetime programming at 10.
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision was first with a 0.7 in the demo and 1.6 million total average viewers across primetime. At 8 p.m., a new installment of telenovela “Vencer la Ausencia” received a 0.6 demo rating and 1.6 million total viewers. For the next two hours of primetime, the Liga MX soccer league game between Toluca and Pachuca netted 0.7 in the demo and 1.7 million total viewers on average.
Telemundo came in second, averaging a 0.3 demo rating and 1.1 million total viewers on average. The network aired reruns of all its programming, with “Éxatlon” managing a 0.2 demo rating and 862,000 watchers from 7 to 9 p.m. Next up was “La Reina del Sur,” which got 0.4 in the demo and 1.3 million total average viewers. “El Fuego del Destino” closed out the night with a 0.2 demo rating and 952,000 total viewers from 10 to 11 p.m.
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