Primetime Ratings: Fox’s ‘Star’ Debuts Well

Fox took top honors Wednesday with a 2.4 rating in adults 18-49 and a 9 share. Empire, trying out a different time slot to lead viewers to Star, rated a 2.7, up from last week’s 2.5. The premiere of Star did a promising 2.2.

According to Nielsen’s overnights, CBS did a 1.8/6, ABC a 1.5/6, NBC a 1.5/5 and The CW a 0.3/1.

CBS’ Survivor finale scored a 2.0, up 18% from last week, before the reunion special tallied a 1.4. The spring finale rated a 2.1, and that reunion show a 1.5.

ABC’s comedies, up against NBC’s Hairspray Live! a week before, mostly rebounded Wednesday. The Goldbergs grew 13% to 1.7 and Speechless climbed 23% to 1.6. Modern Family fell 9% from two weeks ago to 2.0 and Black-ish increased 33% to 1.6, before the Designated Survivor winter finale grew 9% to 1.2.

NBC’s A Pentatonix Christmas Special, featuring the vocal group crooning Christmas chestnuts, scored a 1.4, while the two-hour A Saturday Night Live Christmas Special rated a 1.5.

On CW, Top 12 Greatest Christmas Movies rated a 0.3, as did a re-airing of Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

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.