When it comes to TV, winter is typically no fall — but a few of these series premieres could have made the cut for an earlier start, ratings-wise. TheWrap has ranked all of broadcast’s midseason debuts by their “live” total-viewer tallies. A pair of new singing competitions were impressive, a kinda-sorta reboot on The CW was not. Scroll through our gallery for the Nielsen returns from the 20 debuts we’ve seen. Find our Fall TV version of these rankings here.
Rank: 20 Show: “In the Dark” Net: The CW Total Viewers: 894,000
Rank: 19 Show: “Roswell, New Mexico” Net: The CW Total Viewers: 1.5 million
Rank: 18 Show: “Mental Samurai” Net: Fox Total Viewers: 2.3 million
Rank: 17 Show: “Abby’s” Net: NBC Total Viewers: 2.6 million
Rank: 16 Show: “Proven Innocent” Net: Fox Total Viewers: 3.1 million
Rank: 15 Show: “Million Dollar Mile” Net: CBS Total Viewers: 4.07 million
Rank: 14 Show: “Whiskey Cavalier” Net: ABC Total Viewers: 4.10 million * (*Time period premiere. Special post-Oscars sneak peek earned 4.2 million viewers)
Rank: 13 Show: “The Fix” Net: ABC Total Viewers: 4.4 million
Rank: 12 Show: “Bless This Mess” Net: ABC Total Viewers: 4.6 million
Rank: 11 Show: “The Red Line” Net: CBS Total Viewers: 4.79 million
Rank: 10 Show: “The Village” Net: NBC Total Viewers: 4.81 million
Rank: 9 Show: “Schooled” Net: ABC Total Viewers: 4.82 million
Rank: 8 Show: “The Passage” Net: Fox Total Viewers: 5.2 million
Rank: 7 Show: “The World’s Best” Net: CBS Total Viewers: 5.6 million* (*Time period premiere. Special post-Super Bowl LIII series debut earned 22.2 million viewers)
Rank: 6 Show: “The Enemy Within” Net: NBC Total Viewers: 5.8 million
Rank: 5 Show: “The Titan Games” Net: NBC Total Viewers: 6.5 million
Rank: 4 Show: “Fam” Net: CBS Total Viewers: 7.3 million
Rank: 3 Show: “The Code” Net: CBS Total Viewers: 8.2 million* (*Episode 2, its time period premiere, had 4.4 million viewers)
Rank: 2 Show: “The Masked Singer” Net: Fox Total Viewers: 9.4 million
Rank: 1 Show: “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” Net: NBC Total Viewers: 10 million
