FINALS UPDATE:The Vampire Diaries (0.6) adjusted up. Thursday Night Football (6.0) was actually up just a tenth from last week after accounting for time zones and the NFL Network audience.
ABC broke up TGIT for a night to put its annual second airing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1.7) at 8/7c in place of Grey's Anatomy. While it was a good night for the Peanuts special itself (even with last year's airing on the same evening), it did no favors to the rest of TGIT, as Scandal (2.3) dropped by two tenths and How to Get Away with Murder (1.8) by a pretty disappointing three tenths to a new low.
Fox had its own irregularity as it opened November sweeps with a crossover between Bones (1.3) and Sleepy Hollow (1.1). As usual, this was much more helpful to the second show as Hollow spiked by three tenths to a new season high, but Bones had a rather good night in its own right. (The arrival of The Big Bang Theory, which seemingly destroyed this show last year, looms next week.)
NBC was up a tenth for The Blacklist (1.5) but saw some more erosion for Heroes Reborn (1.0) and The Player (0.7). CW Thursday stayed pretty low with The Vampire Diaries (0.5) and The Originals (0.4).
Meanwhile, this was the last week of the regular run for Thursday Night Football on CBS, though it will return to CBS for a one-off in early December. With Tom Brady and the Patriots in this game, it looks like it was up at least 10% from last week in the early prelims.
FINALS UPDATE:The Middle (2.0) and The Goldbergs (2.2)went up to put all the ABC comedy originals on the upside vs. last week. Survivor (2.1) was also up a tick. The Mysteries of Laura (1.0), Arrow (0.9) and Supernatural (0.8) all went down 0.1, but that's still a good number for SPN which bounced all the way back to its week two rating.
The World Series ended up with 13.72 million viewers and a 3.9 A18-49, which was down 15% from Tuesday's rating. But this was still 15% ahead of last year's Game 2 and the best Game 2 since 2011.
And the Republican debate averaged 14 million viewers and a 2.64 A18-49 on CNBC. Certainly this is big enough to be a factor in the landscape but it had barely half the 18-49 audience of the enormous CNN Republican debate in mid-September (4.94). Even the CNN Democratic debate two weeks ago (3.59) was considerably bigger.
On a night with no original Modern Family, the other ABC comedies held up fine with Halloween originals as The Middle (1.9) and The Goldbergs(2.1) were even and Black-ish (1.9) was actually up a tenth with no Empire competition but a repeat ModFam lead-in (albeit a particularly strong one at 1.9). Nashville (1.1) rounded out the steady ABC evening.
NBC had relatively normal results from The Mysteries of Laura (1.1) and a special two-hour edition of Chicago PD (1.4/1.5), though PD's 1.4 in the 9:00 hour was lower than anything Law and Order: SVU has done there this season even with Empire competition. CBS also saw no real benefit on an Empire-free night as Criminal Minds (1.6) stayed at last week's low in between slightly down Survivor (2.0) and Code Black (1.1).
The CW, which has usually had a rough time against the World Series historically, had a surge in the prelims with Arrow (1.0) and Supernatural (0.9). We'll see if there were NBA preemptions in the mix here.
Fox had a relatively lopsided Game 2 of the World Series and seems to be down from Game 1, at least in the early prelims. There was also a Republican presidential debate on CNBC in the mix, whose early household numbers suggest a huge number (certainly a record-setter for that channel) but not quite in the league of the Fox News/CNN debates. More after finals!
WEEK ONE Rating: 0.7 Lead-in:Undateable (0.9) Competition:Dr. Ken (1.3), The Amazing Race (1.1), American League Championship Series (1.7), Reign (0.3)
FINALS UPDATE:Fresh Off the Boat (1.5), NCIS (2.1), The Voice (2.6) and The Flash (1.4) all adjusted up. The World Series (4.6) did not (and was actually down in viewership) after accounting for time zones and the two hours after primetime, but it was still the best Game 1 since 2010.
ABC's late October drama debut was an afterthought, as Wicked City (0.9) couldn't even crack a 1.0 on premiere night and thus went well below the premieres of even the biggest new drama losers this fall. Clearly ABC's search for an answer on Tuesday at 10/9c will have to continue. ABC had at least a minor consolation as fast-tanking The Muppets (1.4) finally had a small rebound after a week off, though the momentum did not continue to Fresh Off the Boat (1.4) and Agents of SHIELD (1.4).
Fox got a break from its usual Tuesday woes with what looks like a really strong Game 1 of the World Series, averaging a preliminary 15.26 million viewers and 4.6 demo from 8:00 to 11:00 and continuing wayyy past primetime. Even if this doesn't adjust up (which it probably will), it would be about a third above last year's Game 1. This will be the best Game 1 viewership/demo since at least the 4.7 in 2010 and probably since the 6.3 in 2009.
Perhaps the biggest winner against the Series was NBC's Chicago Fire (1.9), which finally showed some signs of life after a couple underwhelming weeks to start the season. It spiked by two or three tenths even as Best Time Ever (1.1) and The Voice (2.5) faded a bit.
CBS was down a touch with NCIS (2.0) but otherwise steady with NCIS: New Orleans (1.6) and Limitless (1.4). And CW's The Flash (1.3) gave up a tenth as iZombie (0.6) gained one. (But one or both could be even after finals.)
