Preliminary Ratings: Wednesday 05/18/2016

FOX wins the Wednesday night ratings, thanks to a strong performance by the season finale of EMPIRE. The second year drama drew 10.8 million viewers and a solid 4.0 rating in Adults 18-49. Nearly double of what the next closest competitor drew for its A18-49 demo rating.

CBS was a solid second, and won the night in total viewership, with three hours of SURVIVOR. The two hour season finale was second in every category, while the reunion show was on the 10 PM time slot. Compared to last spring's finale, Viewership is mostly flat and the A18-49 demo was down less than 10 percent.

Third place ABC closed out its four sitcoms to relatively decent numbers. THE MIDDLE nearly equalled the total number of viewers MODERN FAMILY drew. Lame duck series, NASHVILLE, was last in its time slot.

NBC didn't have much of a chance doing any better than four, with HEARTBEAT in the line up. The burn-off, freshman medical drama was the lowest rated show of the night, from a big 4 network, and was beat by both ARROW and SUPERNATURAL, on the CW, in the A18-34 demographic.

Preliminary L+SD Network Averages:

	Total viewers	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
ABC	5.40 million	0.9	1.4	1.9
CBS	8.70 million	1.3	1.9	2.6
CW	2.10 million	0.6	0.8	0.8
FOX	7.80 million	2.4	2.7	3.1
NBC	5.40 million	0.7	1.1	1.5

Time	Net	Program	Viewers*	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
8:00	ABC	The Middle (SF)	6.70	0.9	1.6	2.2
8:30	ABC	The Goldbergs (SF)	6.30	1.1	1.8	2.4
9:00	ABC	Modern Family (SF)	6.80	1.4	2.1	2.6
9:30	ABC	Black-ish (SF)	5.10	0.9	1.5	1.9
10:00	ABC	Nashville	3.70	0.5	0.8	1.1
8:00	CBS	Survivor (SF)	9.60	1.4	2.1	2.9
10:00	CBS	Survivor Reunion	6.80	1.1	1.5	2.1
8:00	CW	Arrow	2.20	0.6	0.8	0.8
9:00	CW	Supernatural	1.90	0.6	0.7	0.8
8:00	FOX	Rosewood	4.70	1.1	1.4	1.7
9:00	FOX	Empire (SF)	10.80	3.6	4.0	4.5
8:00	NBC	Heartbeat	3.80	0.4	0.7	1.0
9:00	NBC	Law & Order: SVU	5.60	0.8	1.2	1.7
10:00	NBC	Chicago PD	6.90	1.0	1.4	1.9

* - in millions