We’re more than a month into the broadcast TV fall 2022
season and we’ve already got a few winners and losers
to discuss when it comes to new scripted series.
There are multiple ways to categorize a victory in the this ever-evolving TV landscape, where the adults 18-49 demographic is shrinking more and more each season, but for the purposes of this story looking at the debuts of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and The CW’s new shows, Variety has ranked the programs by the total viewers that each series premiere racked up, according to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data.
With that methodology in mind, the bottom of the list is, as usual, made up of “Supernatural” and “Walker” prequel shows that aired on the younger-skewing CW network (which was recently acquired by Nexstar from former majority owners Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery), while the higher end includes a trio of new CBS series: “Fire Country,” “East New York” and “So Help Me Todd.”
Additionally, Fox’s Susan Sarandon-led country music drama “Monarch” had a pretty nice opening audience — until you realize that it should have done much better with an NFL doubleheader as its lead-in on premiere night.
Elsewhere, a “Quantum Leap” reboot on NBC, new George Lopez sitcom “Lopez vs Lopez,” and “The Rookie” spinoff “The Rookie: Feds” on ABC put up less-than desirable launch audiences.
While it’s important to note that these Week 1 tune-ins don’t display how the show is doing to-date, and definitely don’t account for streaming viewers or delayed viewing, it does reveal what the appetite for this new content — and general awareness of its existence in the extra-peak peak TV era — was like from the start.
See the rankings below, with least-watched premiere first and most-watched premiere last. This list will be updated as other fall scripted series debut.