The Season 8 — and Thursday — premiere for Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing” halved the demo rating the sitcom opened to last time.
To be fair to Fox, the previous season premiere marked the comedy’s highly anticipated comeback after ABC’s cancellation. It was also scheduled for the fall, not winter, which is generally the higher-rated portion of the traditional television season. But the Season 7 opener aired on a Friday, which is generally lower-rated than Thursday nights.
Finally, last night’s season premiere was one hour long, the (semi-)comparable one in September 2018 was just 30 minutes.
So it all depends on how you look at it.
Anyway, Fox won primetime in the key demo but finished second in terms of total viewers. And “Last Man Standing” still provided a decent lead-in for new series “Deputy,” which did just fine.
Fox was first in ratings with a 0.8 rating/4 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and second in total viewers with an average of 4.9 million, according to preliminary numbers. “Last Man Standing” at 8 premiered to a 0.9/5 and 5.2 million viewers. Those are down from September 2018’s 1.8 rating and 8.1 million total viewers. At 9, the debut of the new series “Deputy” had a 0.7/4 and 4.6 million viewers.
ABC was second in ratings with a 0.7/3 and in viewers with 5 million. “What Is Jeopardy!” at 8 received a 0.9/5 and 7.8 million viewers. “The Great American Holiday Baking Show” from 9 to 11 closed out primetime, averaging a 0.6/3 and 3.5 million viewers.
Univision was third in ratings with a 0.5/3 and fifth in viewers with 1.5 million.
CBS was fourth in ratings with a 0.4/2 and third in viewers with 3.4 million, airing all reruns.
NBC and Telemundo tied for fifth in ratings, both with a 0.3. NBC had a 2 share, Telemundo had a 1. NBC was fourth in total viewers with 1.9 million, Telemundo was sixth with 840,000.
For NBC, between reruns, “The Paley Center Salutes Law & Order” in the 9 o’clock hour got a 0.3/1 and 1.7 million viewers.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1/1 and in viewers with 553,000, airing repeats.