Next-level TV ratings and scheduling analysis at SpottedRatings.com

WHAT MATTERS:

FINALS UPDATE: American Idol officially made it back into the threes with a finals uptick, while Modern Family went up to 2.8. The Mysteries of Laura adjusted down to the low end of its fall numbers at 1.0, a disappointing result in a week with so many upswings.

The former Death Star is back for one final ride, and it was a promising start for American Idol (2.9) as the show's two-hour premiere dominated primetime and took a less-than-average decline from last season's 3.2 opener.

On ABC, the big story was the return of American Crime (1.2) at 10/9c. While this number was down 40% from last year's series premiere, it certainly could've been worse; it went above the entire second half of season one and also tied Nashville's premiere in the slot earlier this season.

Crime got some nice help from Black-ish (2.1), which got the biggest early January boost out of the whole ABC comedy lineup with no more Empire competition for now. The rest of the gang (The Middle (2.1), The Goldbergs (2.1) and Modern Family (2.7)) saw only small upticks.

CBS saw an OK return from 2 Broke Girls (1.7) and Mike and Molly (1.6) in the 8/7c hour, where they will fill the Survivor hiatus over the next six weeks. These shows don't seem as strong as they were a year ago, but should mark a nice improvement over what The Mentalist did with this timeslot in winter 2015. CBS also had the People's Choice Awards (1.3), which are crumbling at a rather alarming rate; this was the ceremony's second straight 25%+ year-to-year decline.

NBC's The Mysteries of Laura (1.1) returned at its usual number at 8/7c, but Law and Order: SVU (1.8) and Chicago PD (1.9) were much stronger than usual, benefiting from PD's end to the three-part Chicago crossover, plus a lot less drama competition on CBS/Fox. It was an outright season high for PD.

The Latest