NBC took a hit in primetime viewership Thursday with no new episodes of “Law & Order: SVU” and its spinoff “Organized Crime.”
The broadcast network, which aired a fresh episode of “The Blacklist” as its only original of the night, shed 800,000 viewers from last Thursday, when it aired back-to-back new episodes of the “Law & Order” franchise.
Turns out Raymond “Red” Reddington alone isn’t nearly as much of a draw as Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler together.
Meanwhile, Fox dominated the night with the New England Patriots at Atlanta Falcons “Thursday Night Football” game.
Outside of “TNF,” CBS’ “Young Sheldon” was Thursday’s highest-rated show.
Due to the nature of live sports, the below early Nielsen numbers for Fox should be considered subject to extra adjustment. Final numbers will come out later today.
Fox was first in ratings with a 2.0 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 8.4 million, according to preliminary numbers. Those are the initial averages for the Patriots-Falcons game.
ABC was second in ratings with a 0.5 and third in viewers with 3.8 million. At 8 p.m., “Station 19” pulled a 0.6 and 4.6 million viewers. “Grey’s Anatomy” at 9 earned a 0.6 and 4 million viewers. “Big Sky” at 10 closed the night with a 0.3 and 2.7 million viewers.
CBS was third in ratings with a 0.4 and second in viewers with 4.4 million. At 8, “Young Sheldon” scored a 0.7 and 6.7 million viewers. “United States of Al” at 8:30 received a 0.5 and 4.6 million viewers. At 9, “Ghosts” brought in a 0.5 and 5.2 million viewers. A new “B Positive” at 9:30 managed a 0.4 and 3.9 million viewers. An encore of “Bull” followed.
NBC was fourth in ratings with a 0.3 and in viewers with 2.3 million. At 8, “The Blacklist” settled for a 0.3 and 2.9 million viewers. Reruns of “Law & Order: SVU” and “Law & Order: Organized Crime” followed.
The CW was fifth in ratings with a 0.1 and in viewers with 618,000. At 8, “Walker” got a 0.1 and 850,000 viewers. “Legacies” at 9 also had a 0.1 but fell to 387,000 viewers.
We do not have early Nielsen numbers for Spanish-language broadcast networks Univision and Telemundo.