Primetime Ratings: ‘Lucifer’ Starts Strong for Fox

The second episode of the X-Files revival scored a 3.2 in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen’s overnights, helping Fox to an easy win on the night. The strong showing by Mulder and Scully helped the premiere of Lucifer rate a promising 2.4.

Fox averaged a robust 2.8/8, followed by ABC at 1.9/6, CBS at 1.7/5, NBC at 1.2/4 and The CW at 0.3/1.

The X-Files premiered the night before with a 5.1 rating in 18-49 for the first half hour—enjoying a massive lead-in from the NFC championship, but a funky 10:24 start time. In the remake, Joel McHale plays a conspiracy-minded host of a web program.

On ABC, The Bachelor was up 10% from last week at 2.3, and The Bachelor Live was up 11% at 1.0.

On CBS, Supergirl was flat at 1.8 and Scorpion slipped 10% to 1.8, then NCIS: Los Angeles fell 17% to 1.5.

Over NBC’s way, Superstore rated a 1.4, down 13%, and Telenovela a 0.9, down 18%. The Biggest Loser rebounded with a 1.2, up 20%.

The CW spent big on marketing the return of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, playing up star Rachel Bloom’s win at the Golden Globes. But the show posted a 0.3, down 25% from its last original airing at the end of November, before Jane the Virgin did a flat 0.4.

Michael Malone

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.