The shocking death on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” on Thursday night yielded a killer bump in the ratings for the show, which posted it best performance since its season premiere in September, according to preliminary numbers.
Airing at 8 p.m., “Grey’s Anatomy,” which (SPOILER ALERT) bid adieu to Patrick Dempsey‘s Dr. Derek Shepherd character in a most jarring way, scored a 2.8 rating/10 share in the 18-49 demographic most important to advertisers, with 9.4 million total viewers. That marked the show’s best performance since the Sept. 25 season premiere.
Compared to last week’s episode, Thursday’s “Grey’s” was up 33 percent in the demo and 24 percent in total viewers.
Overall for the night, ABC shared first place in the demo with CBS, with both networks averaging a 2.0/7, though CBS was the most-watched network with 9.4 million total viewers, compared to 7.1 million for second-place ABC.
Following “Grey’s,” “Scandal at 9 posted a 2.3/7 with 7.8 million total viewers, while the freshman offering “American Crime” the following hour fell 18 percent from last week’s episode for a 0.9/3 with 4.1 million total viewers.
At CBS, “The Big Bang Theory” at 8 was the night’s highest rated program among the networks with a 3.5/13, though that was down 10 percent from last week. “BBT” was also the most-watched show of the night with 14.4 million total viewers. “The Odd Couple” at 8:30 drew a 2.0/7 with 9.5 million total viewers, while “Mom” at 9 dropped 14 percent to a 1.9/6 with 9 million total viewers. Following a “Big Bang Theory” repeat, “Elementary” at 10 grabbed a 1.3/4 with 7.6 million total viewers.
NBC and Fox tied for fourth place in the demo with each scoring a 0.9/3, while NBC held third place on its own in total viewers with 5.5 million, versus 3.8 million for Fox, which was fourth in total viewers.
After a repeat of “The Blacklist” at NBC, a new episode at 9 fell 13 percent from its most recent original on April 2, posting a 1.4/5 with 7.2 million total viewers. “Dateline: Real Blacklists” at 10 drew a 0.9/3 and drew 5.8 million total viewers.
Fox aired “Bones” at 8, which was even with last week for a 1.0/3 and had 4.6 million total viewers, followed by “Backstrom” at 9, which also held steady with a 0.8/3 and 3 million total viewers.
Univision was fifth in ratings and total viewers with a 1.0/3 and 2.6 million, while Telemundo took sixth place with a 0.6/3 and 1.7 million.
Seventh-place The CW averaged a 0.5/2 in the demo and 1.1 million total viewers. Both of its offerings held even with last week but tied series lows in the demo, with “The Vampire Diaries” drawing a 0.6/2 and 1.4 million total viewers and “Reign” posting a 0.3/1 with 841,000 total viewers.