Preliminary Ratings: Wednesday 09/23/15

FOX dominated the Wednesday night ratings, with the return of EMPIRE. The second year drama hauled in a strong 16 million viewers and a 6.5 rating in Adults 18-49. That is off by 0.4 points in the A18-49 demo and 1.6 million viewers, from March's season finale. It is the second best numbers of the young series.

Earlier on FOX, the new series ROSEWOOD had a solid premiere, drawing 7.4 million viewers and a 1.9 rating in Adults 18-34. It is one of the better series premieres the network has had in the last couple of years, excluding EMPIRE. So far, FOX is doing better this premiere week than it did last year.

CBS was a solid second place with its reality competition series block. The premiere of SURVIVOR hauled in 9.6 million viewers and a 2.5 rating in the A18-49 demo. That is down, slightly, in viewers, but up in the demo, from last spring's season premiere. The premiere is also on par with the season average of last fall's edition.

Following Survivor was the season finale of BIG BROTHER and it brought in about what its season average will be. 6.5 million viewers and a 2.2 rating. It is down from the 2014 finale by 400k in viewers and 0.2 points in the demo.

ABC's full line up premieres to mixed numbers. The two 8 p.m. comedies were flat, year-to-year, posting the most positive numbers for the night, for ABC. MODERN FAMILY and BLACK-ISH were significantly down. Bother shows were down around two million viewers and about eight tenths of a point in the demo. EMPIRE was a significant force the two comedies could not handle. NASHVILLE was down about 10%, or so, from last year's premiere.

After winning the first two nights, NBC was a 4th place network on Wednesday night. Viewership totals are not bad, but the younger demographics is where they lag behind.

Preliminary L+SD Network Averages:

	Total viewers	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
ABC	7.10 million	1.4	2.1	2.7
CBS	8.10 million	1.6	2.4	2.9
CW	0.90 million	0.3	0.3	0.4
FOX	11.70 million	4.0	4.4	4.8
NBC	7.80 million	1.0	1.6	2.0

Time	Net	Program	Viewers*	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
8:00	ABC	The Middle (SP)	8.20	1.2	2.1	2.9
8:30	ABC	The Goldbergs (SP)	7.60	1.4	2.4	3.0
9:00	ABC	Modern Family (SP)	9.30	2.1	3.1	3.9
9:30	ABC	Black-ish (SP)	7.30	1.5	2.4	3.0
10:00	ABC	Nashville (SP)	5.00	1.0	1.3	1.6
8:00	CBS	Survivor (SP)	9.60	1.5	2.5	3.2
9:30	CBS	Big Brother (SF)	6.50	1.6	2.2	2.6
8:00	CW	America's Next Top Model	1.40	0.4	0.4	0.5
9:00	CW	A Wicked Offer (SF)	0.50	0.2	0.2	0.2
8:00	FOX	Rosewood (SP)	7.40	1.9	2.4	2.8
9:00	FOX	Empire (SP)	16.00	6.1	6.5	6.8
8:00	NBC	Mysteries of Laura (SP)	6.90	0.6	1.2	1.6
9:00	NBC	Law & Order: SVU (SP)	7.90	1.3	1.7	2.3

* - in millions