Primetime Ratings: Fox Wins With Emphatic ‘Empire’

Fox was the ratings winner in Wednesday’s prime, riding a robust Empire to a 1.7 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 7 share. Next up was CBS at 1.2/5.

Empire returned to the Fox schedule up 25% to a 2.0 while Star climbed 15% to 1.5 .

On CBS, Survivor did a flat 1.7, SEAL Team a flat 1.0 and Criminal Minds went up 22% to 1.1.

NBC rated a 1.1/5, as a The Voice repeat did a 1.3 across two hours, then the special Andrew Lloyd Webber: Tribute to a Superstar scored a 0.6.

ABC was at 1.0/4, as The Goldbergs slipped 7% to 1.4 and the premiere of Alex, Inc. did a 1.1. Modern Family was off 13% at 1.4 and Splitting Up Together scored a 0.8 (it did a 2.2 on Tuesday, with red-hot Roseanne kicking off prime). Designated Survivor posted a flat 0.7.

Univision rated a 0.5/2 and Telemundo a 0.4/2.

The CW was at 0.2/1 as Riverdale tallied a 0.3 and Life Sentence a 0.1, both dramas down a tenth of a point.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.