Primetime Ratings: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Gives CBS Easy Win

CBS was the big winner in Thursday ratings, riding the NFL to a 3.0 in viewers 18-49, and an 11 share. That easily beat ABC, which sat at 1.9/7.

CBS had Thursday Night Kickoff at 2.3, then the game, Bears versus Packers, at 3.2.

On ABC, it was the two-hour season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy at 2.3, up 15% over its May finale, then the premiere of How to Get Away With Murder at 1.1. Murder’s season finale last winter did a 1.5.

NBC was at 1.6/6. The premiere of Superstore did a 1.2, up 50% from last spring’s closer, and The Good Place a 1.3, down a tenth from its premiere. Will & Grace returned, after 11 years off the air, at 3.0, with 10.19 million total viewers. NBC said it was the best debut for a comedy, excluding post-Olympic previews, since The Office six years ago. Great News scored a 1.3, up 63% from its season finale, and Chicago Fire premiered at 1.5, which was 15% better than its spring finale.  

Fox scored a 0.9/4. Gotham fell 20% to 0.8, and Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville rated a flat 1.1.

Telemundo rated a 0.7/3 and Univision a 0.5/2.

The CW did 0.3/1, with Penn & Teller: Fool Us at a level 0.4 and Whose Line Is It Anyway? down a tenth at 0.3.  

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.