Never go against “The Family” — unless you’re “American Idol” or some strong CBS sitcoms. Then, you’ll be fine.
ABC’s new drama debuted to OK-at-best numbers Thursday night in the highly coveted “Scandal” time slot. “The Family” fell to Fox’s singing competition, “Mom” and “2 Broke Girls.” NBC didn’t air direct original competition that hour.
In defense of the new show, the Republican Debate occupied the same hour over on Fox News, adding extra prime-time TV competition last night.
Airing only “Idol,” Fox was first in ratings with a 1.9 rating/6 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 8.7 million, according to preliminary numbers.
ABC was second in ratings with a 1.7/6 and third in viewers with 6 million. At 8 p.m., “Grey’s Anatomy” earned a 2.2/8 and 7.7 million viewers. At 9, “The Family” posted a 1.5/5 and 5.7 million viewers. At 10, “How to Get Away With Murder” had a 1.4/5 and 4.6 million viewers.
CBS was third in ratings with a 1.6/5 and second in viewers with 7.5 million. Following a rerun, “Life in Pieces” at 8:30 got a 1.8/6 — down 18 percent without an original “Big Bang Theory” lead-in — and 8.4 million viewers. At 9, “Mom” received a 1.7/6 and 8 million viewers. At 9:30, “2 Broke Girls” put up a 1.7/5 and 6.7 million viewers. “Elementary” at 10 had a 1.2/4 and 6.1 million viewers.
NBC, CW and Univision all tied for fourth in ratings, each with a 0.7/2. NBC was fourth in total viewers with 3.1 million, CW was fifth with 1.9 million, Univision was sixth with 1.8 million.
For NBC, “You, Me and the Apocalypse” at 8 got a 0.5/2 and 2.3 million viewers. A repeat followed. At 10, “Shades of Blue” maintained last week’s 1.0/3 — despite no original lead-in — and had 4.7 million viewers.
For CW, “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” at 8 received a 0.9/3 and 2.3 million viewers. At 9, “The 100” posted a 0.5/2 and 1.4 million viewers.
Telemundo was seventh in ratings with a 0.5/2 and in viewers with 1.4 million.