Preliminary Ratings: Thursday 09/22/2016

CBS easily wind the first Thursday night of the new season, as THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL dominates the ratings. The blowout of Houston, by New England, generated 13 million viewer and a 4.3 rating in Adults 18-49. That is 3.4 million viewers less and a drop of over a full point in the demo, from last week's game.

ABC was a distant second place on the night, as only GREY'S ANATOMY attracted a large audience. The long running medical drama brought in 8.6 million viewers and a 2.4 rating in Adults 18-49. That is off by one million viewers and about 15% in the demo from last season's premiere. NOTORIOUS may be the first new series on the cancellation clock, as it lost 50% of its demographic audiences nearly 40% of the total audience. Comparatively, SCANDAL grew out of GRAY'S last year, by 10-20 percent, in the demo categories. The weaker lead in hurt HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER as it dropped 3.2 million viewers and nearly 50% in the demo, year-to-year.

NBC is getting better on Thursday nights, but it still has a long way to go. It was competitive with ABC on the night, topping it in the 9 PM hour. THE BLACKLIST stayed with HTGAWM at 10 PM. The two comedies were down over 30% in the demo, from last year's HEROES REBORN premiere, but that series quickly tanked over its season run. SUPERSTORE is on par with where it was for last February's season finale.

Sophomore series, ROSEWOOD, may also be on the cancellation clock, as it was the night's lowest rated program of the night, from the Big 4 networks. The season premiere only took in 3.6 million viewers and a 0.7 rating in Adults 18-49. On the up-side for FOX is that the series premiere of PITCH grew out of its lead in by over 50% in the A18-49 demo and 20% in total viewers.

Preliminary L+SD Network Averages:

	Total viewers	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
ABC	6.40 million	1.4	1.7	2.0
CBS	12.40 million	3.5	4.0	4.7
CW	1.20 million	0.2	0.3	0.4
FOX	4.00 million	0.6	0.9	1.2
NBC	6.20 million	0.8	1.4	1.8

Time	Net	Program	P2*	A18-34	A18-49	A25-54
8:00	ABC	Grey's Anatomy(SP)	8.60	2.1	2.4	2.8
9:00	ABC	Notorious (SP)	5.40	1.0	1.2	1.5
10:00	ABC	HTGAWM (SP)	5.20	1.2	1.4	1.8
8:00	CBS	TNF Pregame	9.50	2.3	2.7	3.3
8:30	CBS	TNF: HOU v NE	13.00	3.7	4.3	5.0
8:00	CW	The Flash [R]	1.30	0.2	0.3	0.4
9:00	CW	Supernatural [R]	1.00	0.2	0.3	0.3
8:00	FOX	Rosewood (SP)	3.60	0.4	0.7	1.0
9:00	FOX	Pitch (SP)	4.30	0.7	1.1	1.4
8:00	NBC	Superstore (SP)	5.40	0.8	1.4	1.9
8:30	NBC	The Good Place	5.20	0.7	1.3	1.7
9:00	NBC	Chicago Med (SP)	7.00	0.8	1.4	1.9
10:00	NBC	The Blacklist (SP)	6.40	0.7	1.3	1.8

* - viewers in millions