‘Rocky Horror’ Ratings Fall From ‘Grease Live’ As CBS Tops Night With Packers Win – UPDATE
UPDATE, 8:55 AM: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of the classic cult films of all time with midnight screenings still packed 41-years after its release but the small screen reimagining last night on Fox couldn’t lay a glittery glove on Sandy, Danny and the Pink Ladies of Grease Live!
In fast affiliates, the Kenny Ortega-directed pre-recorded The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again continued the trend set earlier this morning by metered market results and ended up far behind Fox’s January 31 airing of Grease Live! Facing the NFL on Thursday Night Football on CBS and the big market interest in the Chicago Cubs and L.A. Dodgers Game 5 of the National League Championship series on Fox Sports, the Laverne Cox-led 8 – 10 PM Rocky Horror delivered a 1.7/6 rating among adults 18-49. While a nearly 90% improvement on last week for Fox, that’s a 60% demo drop from what Grease Live! had at the beginning of the year on a rainy Sunday night in L.A., and third among the 18-49s in the 8 PM time period.
Viewershipwise, Rocky Horror snagged an audience of 4.95 million, down 59% from Grease Live! In fact, NFL programming aside, Rocky Horror wasn’t even the most watched show in its slot. Grey’s Anatomy (2.1/8) and Chicago Med (1.2/4) had 8.06 million and 6.62 million viewers in their respective 8 PM and 9 PM slots.
The big song and dance of the night on the Big 4 was Thursday Night Football (3.0/11) on CBS. Dead even in fast affiliates with last week’s Denver Broncos slap down by the San Diego Chargers, the Green Bay Packers’ 26-10 win over the Chicago Bears had 10.50 million viewers in the 8:30 – 11 PM time period. As usual, expect adjustments here as, for instance, the October 13 game went up to 4.7/19 demo rating with 14.49 million viewers in the final numbers.
Right now, the NFL-hosting House of Moonves is winning Thursday with a 2.9/10 rating and 10.25 million viewers.
Looking over the non-sports and musical portion of the evening, Grey’s, The Blacklist (1.1/4) and the second week of Season 2 of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (0.6/2) were all even with last week. Possibly seeing some draw from the first hour of Rocky Horror, when social media interest was peaking, Superstore (1.0/4) and The Good Place (0.9/4) are down 17% and 25% from their October 13 shows.
Not facing any potential Rocky Horror threat, 10 PM’s How To Get Away With Murder (1.2/4) bopped up 9%. And, with drop off from the Fox special in its second hour, HTGAWM’s newbie lead-in Notorious (0.9/3) saw a 13% rise from its airing of last week. Over on NBC at 9PM, Chicago Med was down a tenth from its October 13 show. The second week of Season 12 of Supernatural (0.6/2) saw the fantasy horror series drop 25% among the key 18-49 demo.
PREVIOUSLY, 7:03 AM: There was no time warp for Fox last night with the reimagining of The Rocky Horror Picture Show – at least not in the early ratings.
In metered market results, the two-hour pre-recorded The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again scored a 3.4/5 rating. That’s down 54% in the early results from what the latest such musical event of Grease Live! hit on January 31 on Fox. Now, obviously there is a bit of an apples and baseballs (catch that MLB nod there?), here as Grease Live! was …well, live and Rocky Horror was filmed in advance and the time of year and competition is very different but as musical event programming on Fox the comparison stands.
The three-hour rendition of the 1950s set high school Grease Live! went on to deliver the network a strong 4.3/13 rating and 12.19 million viewers. Those final numbers were steady among adults 18-49 from what NBC’s The Sound Of Music Live!, the very successful first live TV musical of our era, snagged back on December 5, 2013.
As things stand right now, the Laverne Cox-led new Rocky Horror still looks pretty sure to be the top non-sports show of a Thursday night that saw a lot of sports on – including the Chicago Cubs beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 in the City of Angels in Game 5 of the nail-biting National League Championship series on Fox Sports. The Windy City team now leads the series 3-2 and are on the verge of heading to the World Series for the first time since the end of World War II.
The overall top show of the night was Thursday Night Football as the Green Bay Packers walloped the Chicago Bears 26-10 on CBS. The Lambeau Field-played game pulled in a 7.3/12 metered market rating. With just a 2% dip, that’s basically even with the October 13 TNF 21-13 match-up between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. That TNF game went on to get a 4.7/17 rating among the key demo and 14.49 million viewers – a rise from the week before in a season that has seen NFL ratings hit hard.
We’ll update with more ratings and what else was on TV last night later.
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