RATINGS RECAP: 9/27/15

ABC
7:00 Once Upon a Time: The Dark Swan Rises
Viewers: 3.2 million, 18-49 demo: 0.7
8:00 Once Upon a Time
Viewers: 5.9 million, 18-49 demo: 1.8
9:00 Blood & Oil
Viewers: 6.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.4
10:00 Quantico
Viewers: 7.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.9

CBS
7:00 NFL Overrun
Viewers: 13.0 million, 18-49 demo: 4.4
7:30 60 Minutes
Viewers: 15.0 million, 18-49 demo: 2.9
9:00 CSI
Viewers: 12.2 million, 18-49 demo: 1.8

NBC
7:00 Football Night in America
Viewers: 8.3 million, 18-49 demo: 3.0
8:00 NFL Pregame
Viewers: 11.9 million, 18-49 demo: 4.4
8:30 Sunday Night Football
Viewers: 22.1 million, 18-49 demo: 8.1

FOX
7:00 Family Guy (Repeat)
Viewers: 2.1 million, 18-49 demo: 0.8
7:30 Bob's Burgers
Viewers: 2.5 million, 18-49 demo: 1.2
8:00 The Simpsons
Viewers: 3.3 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5
8:30 Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Viewers: 3.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5
9:00 Family Guy
Viewers: 2.9 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5
9:30 The Last Man on Earth
Viewers: 3.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.4

On Sunday night, ABC premiered its new lineup of dramas and got pretty troubling results until there was a bright spot to end the night. At 8pm, Once Upon a Time did not start things off with a bang as it has other seasons. It was up from a lot of spring episodes but still pretty weak at a 1.8 demo. Unless it can reinvent itself again like it did for the Frozen storyline last year, I'm pretty sure this is going to continue to trend downward. The worst piece of news was at 9pm where Blood & Oil premiered pretty close to DOA levels. It skewed too old and generated very little interest. I'm not sure this will even survive until January. But at 10pm, Quantico was a pleasant surprise, as it built heavily on its Blood & Oil lead-in and skewed much younger. It also did far better than any episode of Revenge in this slot last season. Clearly there was some buzz for this show and it makes you wonder if this scheduling was right. But if it can save the 10pm hour and ABC can find a buzzier and better show for 9pm, the night might work. Maybe Secrets & Lies should return to 9pm instead of the Wednesday 10pm plan?

FOX had the premiere of its comedy/cartoon lineup. The good news is the block was pretty consistent from start to finish while the bad news was everything was awfully low. It looked like spring numbers for this block without a direct NFL lead-in. This is bad news for The Simpsons and Family Guy, which have typically done decently with early fall episodes whether there's a direct NFL lead-in or not. There are positives from the other shows. For Bob's Burgers, it really did quite well for 7:30pm. For the live action sitcoms, they really fit like a glove with this lineup and look like potential long term players. This lineup will obviously improve when there is a direct football lead-in but it's not looking good for the spring already.

Following a strong lead-in from an NFL-fueled 60 Minutes, CBS aired the series finale of CSI, which ended with a movie following its 15 season run. It delivered a strong total viewer count but skewed old. This show has sailed off into the sunset, but it had an incredible run. It was a little show that could on Friday night in the fall of 2000. It got a timeslot upgrade in February of 2001 and became one of TV's top shows for years. It inspired four spinoffs and many more procedural crime dramas that were in the same vein. It deserves to be discussed among the most influential dramas of all time if not one of the most critically acclaimed. A Broncos-Lions game on NBC was well below last week's Packers-Seahawks game.

WINNER OF THE NIGHT: Quantico (ABC)
LOSER OF THE NIGHT: Blood & Oil (ABC)