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ABC’s Big Thursday Night: ‘TGIT’ returns Strong, Wins Every Hour

Jan 27, 2017  •  Post A Comment

ABC is understandably excited after scoring a big ratings win Thursday night. The network’s “TGIT” lineup of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” returned to pretty much dominate prime time, especially in the key 18-49 demo.

“Grey’s,” airing at 8 p.m., was the top show of the night, delivering a 2.6 average rating (9 share) in 18-49 in Nielsen Live+Same Day data. ABC notes in an announcement today that it was the show’s best result since September 2015.

The show topped everything in the hour, with the next best number being a 1.6 for the CBS juggernaut “The Big Bang Theory,” which cooperated by airing a repeat. “Grey’s” also managed to beat the “Bang” repeat in total viewers, but not by a huge margin: just 9.52 million for “Grey’s” to 9.31 million for “Bang,” easily the best non-ABC number of the night in the metric.

Airing at 9 p.m., ABC’s “Scandal” premiere came through with a 2.1 average rating in 18-49 along with 7.67 million total viewers. The network noted that the turnout was up by 17% in both metrics over the show’s previous original, back in May, and marked the show’s strongest results in 14 months.

“How to Get Away With Murder” gave ABC another win at 10 p.m., delivering a 1.5 average in 18-49 and 5.4 million total viewers. The demo rating more than doubled the closest competition in the hour, CBS’s series finale of its one-season wonder “Pure Genius,” which managed only a 0.7 average in 18-49 but came close to “Murder’s” number in total viewers with 5.19 million.

Much of the programming on broadcast consisted of repeats, including an all-repeat lineup on NBC — two repeats of “Superstore,” both of which delivered 0.7 average ratings in 18-49; a “Chicago Med” at 9 p.m., with another 0.7; and “The Blacklist” at 9 p.m., with a 0.5).

CBS followed repeats of “The Big Bang Theory,” as noted above, and “Mom” — 1.2 average in 18-49, 7.14 million total viewers — with its special “Mary Tyler Moore: Love Is All Around,” which, predictably, did better in total viewers than in the younger demo. The special managed only a 0.7 in 18-49 — matching much of what was on broadcast Thursday night — but pulled 6.5 million total viewers, a much higher number than anything on Fox or NBC.

Fox aired originals of its “Kitchen” combo of “Hell’s Kitchen” — 1.2 average in 18-49 with 3.98 million viewers — and “My Kitchen Rules” — 0.8 in 18-49, 2.19 million total viewers.

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