‘Shooter’ Premiere Ratings On Par For USA; ‘Good Behavior’ Debut Soft On TNT
UPDATED: Two star drama vehicles, USA’s Shooter toplined by Ryan Phillippe and TNT’s Good Behavior, headlined by Michelle Dockery, premiered last night.
Shooter, whose debut — originally slated for the summer — had been postponed twice because of real-life shootings, opened with 1.4 million and a 0.5 in adults 18-49 (Live+same day) in the Monday 10 PM slot. That was a solid result, on par with USA’s 2016 debuts of Colony (1.4 million, 0.4 in 18-49 in January) and Queen of the South (1.4 million, 0.5 in June), both of which have been renewed for a second season. Shooter was way up from the dismal recent start of new drama Falling Water (467,000 viewers and 0.16 for its preview; 507,000 and 0.16 for the premiere) and also up from the debut last month of lower-budget drama Eyewitness (765,000; 0.2), which relaunched Sunday night for the network. Like the premiere of Colony and Queen of the South, Shooter had a strong lead-in from USA’s highly rated WWE SmackDown (2.7 million, 0.9 last night).
Things were not as positive for TNT’s Good Behavior, which drew 813,000 viewers and a 0.3 in 18-49 in its 9 PM premiere (L+SD). Good Behavior is the second of the new generation of edgier TNT dramas airing with fewer commercials, following Animal Kingdom, which was renewed for a second season. Good Behavior was down significantly from the June debut of Animal Kingdom (1.3 million, 0.45). This may be the lowest-rated TNT drama series premiere ever in Live+same day. Like most networks, TNT and USA do not make decisions based on linear ratings alone, so we will need to wait for DVR and multi-platform data for a full picture of the new shows’ performance, but Good Behavior is off to a shaky ratings start for now.
Ironically, Shooter was originally set up at TNT but was put in turnaround after the regime change at the network, landing at USA.
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