The live episode of “The Conners,” tied to the New Hampshire primary, notched a season-high among total viewers for the ABC sitcom on Tuesday, while the debut of “For Life” at 10 p.m. performed well enough to win its time slot.
The 0.7 rating/4 share among the key adults 18-49 demo for “For Life” could be considered a bit of disappointment — after all it did get a ton of promotion from ABC, especially during The Oscars on Sunday — but building on your lead in is nothing to thumb your nose at. “For Life” also drew 3.2 million total viewers. “The Conners,” which aired a live version of its episode in both the Eastern and Pacific time zones, posted a season-best 6.3 million viewers as well as gained in the demo with a 1.1 rating/6 share.
For the night, ABC took third in the key demo (0.7/4) and total viewers (3.6 million), while NBC took first in the demo with a 1.0/5 and CBS ran away with total viewers with 8.9 million.
Elsewhere on ABC, “Bless This Mess” drew a 0.7/3 and 3.6 million viewers, while “Mixed-ish” garnered a 0.6/3 and 2.6 million viewers. “Black-ish” posted an almost identical 0.6/3 and 2.5 million viewers at 9:30 p.m.
For NBC, “This Is Us” was the top show of the night in the demo with a 1.4/7 and 6.4 million viewers. It’s lead-in “Ellen’s Game of Games” drew a 0.9/5 and 4.5 million viewers. At 10 p.m., “New Amsterdam” got a 0.6/4 and 4.5 million viewers.
CBS took second in the demo with a 0.8/4. “NCIS” as usual was the most-watched show of the night with 11.6 million viewers to go along with a 1.0/5 in the demo. “FBI” got a 0.8/4 and 8.9 million viewers, while its spinoff “FBI: Most Wanted” drew a 0.6/4 and 6.1 million viewers.
Fox came in behind Univision (0.5/3) and tied with Telemundo with a 0.4/2 in the demo, though it did beat out both among total viewers with 1.8 million. After a repeat “The Resident,” “Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back” posted a 0.6/3 and 2 million viewers.
The CW finished with a 0.3/1. “The Flash” drew a 0.3/2 and 1.1 million viewers, while “Legends of Tomorrow” garnered a 0.2/1 and 746,000 viewers.