Primetime Ratings: ‘America’s Got Talent’ Opens Steady

UPDATED: NBC’s America’s Got Talent opened with a 2.5 in adults 18-49, per Nielsen overnights, down a tenth from last year’s premiere and up 19% over the 2015 finale. (The show later ticked up to a 2.6 in Nielsen's official nationals, level with last year's premiere.) The debut of variety show Maya & Marty, hosted by Maya Rudolph and Martin Short, did a 1.5.

With Simon Cowell as a judge, AGT paced NBC to a healthy 2.2/8, way ahead of the pack. CBS did a 0.9/4, ABC a 0.8/3, Fox a 0.7/2 and The CW a 0.4/1.

The broadcasters were up against night two of History miniseries Roots, also airing in Lifetime, LMN and A&E.

CBS was in repeats until 10, when Person of Interest pulled a 1.0, up a tenth from last week’s performance.

ABC had 500 Questions at 0.9, same as its last weeknight airing, before a repeat of Fresh Off the Boat.

On Fox, Hotel Hell rated a flat 0.8 and Coupled a flat 0.5.

CW repeated The Flash, then Containment slipped 20% to 0.4.

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.