Primetime Ratings: Fox’s ‘Pitch’ Opens Soft

Football crushed all comers, as Thursday Night Football on CBS did a 4.3 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, out of a 2.7 pre-game show. The game benefited from featuring the New England Patriots. Last week’s game did a 3.8.

CBS won the night at 4.0/14, ahead of ABC’s 1.7/6, NBC’s 1.3/5, Fox’s 0.9/3 and The CW’s 0.3/1.

ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy opened season 13 at 2.4, up a tenth from its May finale. New drama Notorious debuted at a soft 1.2 and How to Get Away With Murder’s premiere rated a 1.4, flat with last season’s finale.

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On NBC, the premieres of Superstore posted a 1.4 and The Good Place a 1.3, then dramas Chicago Med a 1.4, down from a 1.6 last spring, and Blacklist a 1.3, same as its season finale.

Fox’s Rosewood premiere weighed in at 0.7, down a tenth of a point from its season finale, while the series premiere of Pitch did a 1.1. Critics mostly liked Pitch, about a woman making the major leagues as a pitcher, but the premiere did convert a heavy marketing campaign into major ratings.

The CW was in repeats.

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.