RATINGS RECAP: 9/23/15

ABC
8:00 The Middle
Viewers: 8.2 million, 18-49 demo: 2.1
8:30 The Goldbergs
Viewers: 7.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4
9:00 Modern Family
Viewers: 9.5 million, 18-49 demo: 3.2
9:30 Black-ish
Viewers: 7.3 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4
10:00 Nashville
Viewers: 4.9 million, 18-49 demo: 1.2

CBS
8:00 Survivor
Viewers: 9.7 million, 18-49 demo: 2.5
9:30 Big Brother
Viewers: 6.5 million, 18-49 demo: 2.2

NBC
8:00 The Mysteries of Laura
Viewers: 7.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.2
9:00 Law & Order: SVU
Viewers: 8.3 million, 18-49 demo: 1.8

FOX
8:00 Rosewood
Viewers: 7.5 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4
9:00 Empire
Viewers: 16.2 million, 18-49 demo: 6.7

As expected, Wednesday night was all about Empire. FOX's smash drama returned to huge numbers though it couldn't quite top the season finale numbers back in March. Still, it posted an insane 16.2 million viewers and 6.7 demo. It's truly in a class all its own. Will it last? Who knows, but this start at least shows the hype and promotion all summer worked. It was the closest thing to an event premiere this fall and audiences turned up in bug numbers. In fact, they tuned in so much they helped the lead-in, new drama Rosewood, in a big way. Rosewood got sampled well and had a huge jump in the second half-hour. It's amazing that pre-tune in can be such a thing in 2015 but here it is, it jumped from a 2.1 in the 8:00 half hour to a 2.7 at 8:30. It also was easily FOX's biggest series premiere this week. After the huge disappointments of Minority Report and Scream Queens, Rosewood and Empire gave FOX the medicine it needed. I also think this validates the decision to keep Empire at 9pm. If it aired at 8pm and Rosewood after, Rosewood's raw numbers may have been better but all we would have talked about was the bad retention. Instead, people are mostly pleasantly surprised by the Rosewood showing.

It wasn't horrible for the other networks, however. ABC certainly had plenty to smile about. At 8pm, The Middle and The Goldbergs came all the way back to tie their demos from last fall's premiere week. They are the first two shows to do so when doing a year-to-year comparison. Considering the drops some shows have taken this week in that category, this is a huge win. The 9pm hour was down from last year but held up admirably against Empire. Modern Family is definitely showing its age but its still very clearly the best of the block. Black-ish was understandably down from its series premiere a year ago but it posted its best result ever against Empire. This comedy lineup, which stayed completely in tact, remains very strong. Only Nashville was a problem as it came close to hitting a series low. Just like Castle, why is this staying in this slot?

CBS had its usual Wednesday premiere week combo of the launch of the new Survivor and the finale of Big Brother. Both were down from last year but did pretty well and I would think Survivor is one of the best candidates to have a small drop in week two, especially since it won't have to air in the very competitive 9pm half-hour. Finally, NBC had an OK start as The Mysteries of Laura returned to its second best demo since January. I don't think it's going to cut it and last past its 13 episode order, but it didn't fall on its face. The two hour season premiere of Law & Order: SVU did decently considering the competition and it had a major jump in the 10pm hour after the Empire competition was gone. Of course in the weeks to come, it will only air at 9pm so it may have a rough fall ahead of it.

WINNER OF THE NIGHT: Empire (FOX)
LOSER OF THE NIGHT: Nashville (ABC)