‘MacGyver’ Ratings Down In Week 2 But CBS Still Tops Night, ‘Exorcist’ Falls
Well, Week 2 of the fall season proves once again that there are reboots and then there are reboots – and for CBS, the declining outcome is still a win.
After a strong start on September 23, it was almost certain that the new MacGyver (1.4/6) would see someone downward movement – and it did, 18% among adults 18-49 to be precise. However, with a 17% drop in viewership to 9.09 million, the 8 PM reboot of the Reagan Era action series still snared the title of highest rated show of the night among the key demo for the second week in a row.
MacGyver’s loss of the most watched show of Friday probably didn’t upset the House of Moonves too much – as that crown was placed back on its traditional place of 10 PM’s Blue Bloods (1.3/6) with its audience of 10.39 million. Both the Tom Selleck-led NYPD drama and its Hawaii Five-O (1.3/6) lead-in were even with their fast affiliate results of last week. The 50th State based series saw a rise of a tenth in the final demo numbers last Friday so maybe a repeat is in the cards here.
A sure repeat is CBS holding on to the top spots of the night with a 1.3/6 in the 18-49 demo and 9.698 million viewers – winning every half-hour of the night in both categories.
ABC, the Friday demo winner in recent past seasons, was in second place overall last night with a 1.0 rating, up a tenth from last week. Except for a rising 20/20 (0.9/4), which was up 29% in the demo over its September 23 airing, steady was more the norm for the Disney-owned channel last night as Last Man Standing (1.0/4) and Dr. Ken (0.8/4) both dipped a tenth. At 9PM, past season Friday demo topper Shark Tank (1.¼) was even with its season premiere of last week.
Fox may have prayed for even for the already struggling The Exorcist (0.7/3) but someone wasn’t listening. The 9PM new version of the story of the early 1970s bestselling novel and blockbuster movie took a 30% whack in the demo from its soft September 23 debut. Having seen a 55% demo rise in Live+3 numbers for The Exorcist premiere, which resulted in Fox’s best Friday scripted debut since early 2014, the net must be clasping its hands together to bring ratings life to the series. As for that other devil of Fox’s night, Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen (1.0/4) simmered down a tenth from last week.
NBC was out of the originals scripted game again on Friday with a This Is Us (0.6/3) encore taking up the early part of the night. A new 9-11PM Dateline NBC (1.0/4) was dead even with its September 23 show. The CW’s only original of the night was the season finale of Masters of Illusion (0.4/1), which was up a tenth from last week.
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