The “This Is Us” final season premiere doubled the “Black-ish” final season premiere in ratings and total viewers on Tuesday. Of course, one is a high-rated drama starting its sixth season and one a modestly rated comedy in its eighth season, and they only go head-to-head during “Black-ish’s” 9:30-10 p.m. half-hour, but still interesting enough to point out.
Technically, “Black-ish” had the better lead-in, as time period premieres of new NBC sitcoms “American Auto” and “Grand Crew” underwhelmed. The time period premiere of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” which followed a strong start from new series “Judge Steve Harvey,” performed better.
And “Blacki-ish” certainly did not do bad. You know what did though? ABC’s 10 o’clock drama “Queens,” which dragged down the network’s chance at maybe landing a three-way tie atop the Nielsen leaderboard among adults 18-49. CBS performed well with three hours of “FBI” programming, relegating ABC to the bronze-medal finish.
CBS and NBC tied for first in ratings, both with a 0.6 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic. CBS was first in total viewers with an average of 6.5 million, according to preliminary numbers. NBC was second in total viewers with 3.5 million.
For CBS, “FBI” at 8 posted a 0.7 rating and 8.3 million total viewers. At 9, “FBI: International,” which had “This Is Us” to contend with, received a 0.5 rating and 5.9 million total viewers. “FBI: Most Wanted” at 10, which had bedtimes to contend with, got a 0.4 rating and 5.3 million total viewers.
For NBC, “American Auto” at 8 had a 0.4 rating and 2.4 million total viewers. At 8:30, “Grand Crew” got a 0.3 rating and 1.6 million total viewers. “This Is Us” at 9 started the beginning of the end off with a 1.0 rating and 5.3 million total viewers. “New Amsterdam” at 10 received a 0.4 rating and 3.3 million total viewers.
ABC was third in ratings with a 0.5 and in total viewers with 3.1 million. “Judge Steve Harvey” at 8 earned a 0.7 rating and 4.9 million total viewers. “Abbott Elementary” at 9 received a 0.6 rating and 3.3 million total viewers. At 9:30, the final season of “Black-ish” bowed to a 0.5 rating and 2.6 million total viewers. “Queens” at 10 managed a 0.2 rating and 1.4 million total viewers.
Fox was fourth in ratings with a 0.3 and in total viewers with 5.4 million. Those were the averages from two hours of the latest “Gordon Ramsay’s Road Trip,” which is coded as a special. (Unlike CBS, NBC and ABC, Fox and The CW do not nationally program the 10 p.m. hour.)
The CW was fifth in ratings with a 0.1 and in total viewers with 628,000, airing all repeats.
We do not have early Nielsen numbers for Spanish-language broadcast networks Univision and Telemundo.