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.
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Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.