CBS came in like a lion with the five most-watched shows of the month
One might sugarcoat the audience for The CW’s “Charmed” reboot as being “charming,” considering its tiny size.
In March, the (relatively) new sister-witch reboot “Charmed” averaged just 346,000 total viewers across three telecasts, according to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day metric, the lowest tally for any broadcast TV series.
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Even CW-mate “Nancy Drew” drew 45,000 more viewers per episode, across four episodes.
Also Read: Good, Dog: ABC's 'Pooch Perfect' Premiere Wins 8 PM in TV Ratings
One CW special actually performed worse this month than “Charmed,” a reboot of the 1998-2006 series that debuted in fall 2018.
“All American” spinoff, “All American Stories,” settled for just 194,000 total viewers (anyone age 2 or older). But again, that particular telecast was coded as a special, so we’ll look the other way — for this story, at least.
The CW has traditionally had the smallest linear TV audiences of the English-language broadcast networks. The youth-skewing channel is heavily reliant on digital viewing.
Also Read: The CW's 'Bulletproof' Finale Gets Blown Away in TV Ratings
Right about now you’re probably wondering what was the most-watched broadcast series this month. It likely comes as no surprise that CBS’ “NCIS” claimed that top slot, averaging 9.8 million total viewers across three telecasts.
CBS took the Top 5 spots in March audience tallies. Behind “NCIS” sat three episodes of “60 Minutes” (9 million), one of the conveniently separate “60 Minutes Presents” (8.2 million), three “FBI” episodes (7.7 million) and one of Queen Latifah’s “The Equalizer” (7.4 million).
That’s where NBC takes over with “Chicago Med,” “The Voice” and “Chicago Fire.”
Also Read: Fox's 'Cherries Wild' Finale Gets Wildly Bad Ratings
If we were counting specials, CBS would actually occupy the Top 7 slots. That’s because March’s No. 1 broadcast was Oprah Winfrey’s sitdown interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which scored 17.9 million total “live” viewers. The Grammys grabbed 9.3 million.
Why are we focusing on the fairly antiquated Live + Same Day metric, you may be asking? While admittedly an imperfect way of measuring viewership in 2021, there simply wouldn’t be enough apples-to-apples delayed-viewing data available at this point to perform a fair analysis. At least every telecast is counted — and in the same boat — this way.
This “Charmed,” starring Melonie Diaz, Madeleine Mantock and Sarah Jeffery, is a reboot of the 1998-2006 series of the same name, which ran on The CW’s predecessor network, The WB, for eight seasons. The original “Charmed” starred Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano as sister witches, with Rose McGowan joining the cast as a fourth sister following Doherty’s Season 3 exit.
18 New Winter Shows Ranked by Premiere Viewers, From 'Debris' to 'Holmes Family Effect' (Photos)
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NBC/Fox/CBSIs it cold in here, or is it just the "Cherries Wild" TV ratings? TheWrap has ranked the Big 4 broadcast networks' (CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC) new series by the viewership for their winter 2020-21 debut episodes.
Scroll through the gallery to see how all 18 rank.
Also Read: 2021-22 TV Season: Every Broadcast Show Canceled, Renewed and Ordered – So Far (Updating)
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FoxRank: 18 • Show: "Cherries Wild" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 1.111 million • This Pepsi-produced game show had a flat debut.
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Rank: 17 • Show: "Holmes Family Effect" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 1.230 million • Imported CTV show did not have a positive effect on Fox's ratings.
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ABC
Rank: 16 • Show: "The Hustler" • Net: ABC • Total Viewers: 1.993 million • Hustlin' skills will need to improve if this show wants to get away from the bottom of the Nielsen chart.
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Fox
Rank: 15 • Show: "America's Most Wanted" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 2.200 million • Apparently, America didn't especially want this show back.
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Fox
Rank: 14 • Show: "The Great North" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 2.275 million • Way too far south on this list to be great.
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Fox
Rank: 13 • Show: "Name That Tune" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 3.036 million • It ain't the old days of TV ratings, but this'll do. (Especially for Fox.)
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Fox
Rank: 12 • Show: "Game of Talents" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 3.096 million • Slightly more talented than...
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ABC
Rank: 11 • Show: "Call Your Mother" • Net: ABC • Total Viewers: 3.227 million • A premiere audience that not only a mother could love.
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CBS
Rank: 10 • Show: "Clarice" • Net: CBS • Total Viewers: 3.960 million • "Silence of the Lambs" sequel series "Clarice" was not very silent in its debut, drawing 4 million viewers and topping its 10 p.m. time slot.
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NBC
Rank: 9 • Show: "Kenan" • Net: NBC • Total Viewers: 4.071 million • The lead-out for "Young Rock" didn't have quite as strong a debut as its lead-in, but "SNL" staple Kenan Thompson still drew a decent crowd.
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Fox
Rank: 8 • Show: "The Masked Dancer" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 4.123 million • Doing its parent series, "The Masked Singer," semi-proud with a strong-enough debut audience, which came on the heels of an NFL doubleheader.
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NBC
Rank: 7 • Show: "Debris" • Net: NBC • Total Viewers: 4.360 million • Not garbage.
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NBC
Rank: 6 • Show: "Mr. Mayor" • Net: NBC • Total Viewers: 4.917 million • Cheers to Ted Danson.
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NBC
Rank: 5 • Show: "Young Rock" • Net: NBC • Total Viewers: 5.034 million • "Young Rock" was NBC's most-watched sitcom debut since 2017. Congrats, Dwayne.
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Fox
Rank: 4 • Show: "Call Me Kat" • Net: Fox • Total Viewers: 5.372 million • Mayim Bialik's new sitcom lapped up a whole bunch of viewers -- for a comedy, especially for a Fox comedy -- but it also followed a good NFL game.
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ABC
Rank: 3 • Show: "The Chase" • Net: ABC • Total Viewers: 6.203 million • Just chasing "The Equalizer" (with a big asterisk) and "Celebrity Wheel of Fortune" -- for now.
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ABC
Rank: 2 • Show: "Celebrity Wheel of Fortune" • Net: ABC • Total Viewers: 7.831 million • NOT bankrupt.
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CBS
Rank: 1 • Show: "The Equalizer" • Net: CBS • Total Viewers: 20.4 million • Immediately following Super Bowl LV, "The Equalizer" bowed to what appears to be a whopper of an audience. But in context, the Queen Latifah drama drew the third-smallest audience ever for a show that had the Super Bowl as its lead-in.
“The Masked Dancer” doesn’t even make the Top 5, but “Young Rock” does
Is it cold in here, or is it just the "Cherries Wild" TV ratings? TheWrap has ranked the Big 4 broadcast networks' (CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC) new series by the viewership for their winter 2020-21 debut episodes.
Scroll through the gallery to see how all 18 rank.
Also Read: 2021-22 TV Season: Every Broadcast Show Canceled, Renewed and Ordered – So Far (Updating)
Tony Maglio
TV Editor • tony.maglio@thewrap.com • Twitter: @tonymaglio