Primetime Ratings: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Rebounds on CBS

CBS won the night with Thursday Night Football, the game doing a 3.0 following a kickoff show at 2.3. The numbers were up over the previous week, when the game drew a 2.6 and the pregame a 2.1. The Oct. 13 San Diego Chargers-Denver Broncos encounter grew 15% over the previous week.

For the night, CBS rated a 2.9 and 10 share, according to Nielsen’s overnight ratings, ahead of ABC’s 1.3/5. NBC did a 1.2/4, Fox a 0.8/3 and The CW a 0.7/3.

Up against an MLB playoff deciding game, as well as campaign coverage on the news networks, the entertainment shows had a rough night.

ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy fell 9% to 2.1 and Notorious fell 10% to 0.9. How to Get Away With Murder was off 15% at 1.1.

On NBC, Superstore was off 8% at 1.2 and The Good Place off 14% at 1.2. Chicago Med managed a flat 1.3 and The Blacklist a 1.1, down 8%.

Fox’s Rosewood and Pitch did twin 0.8s, the former down 11% and the latter down 20%.

The CW’s season premiere of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow weighed in at 0.6, down a tenth from its season finale, and the premiere of Supernatural, in its twelfth season, a 0.8, same as its spring sign-off.  

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.