‘Thursday Night Football’ Ratings Tackled To Season Low, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Midseason Finale Steady – UPDATE

Dominic Patten

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UPDATE, 7:22 PM: Took a bit but the final numbers for Thursday Night Football are in and it ain’t pretty

Adjusted up to a 3.8 among adults 18-49 and 12.9 million viewers, the Houston Texans’ tight win over the Indianapolis Colts tumbled 13% in the demo from the final Nielsen stats of last week’s smash and scratch TNF. Actually, the hurt is a little worse for FOX and the NFL as the fast nationals are a season low for the near end of week game – which is an ouch all unto itself, so to speak.

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PREVIOUSLY, 10:15 AM: Last night’s Thursday Night Football win over the Indianapolis Colts was big for the Houston Texans, but not so much for the NFL and FOX.

Sure, the Lone Star state team’s 99 yards rushing was a new season low, but the overall result was still a 20-17 victory and top of the AFC South heading towards the Texans’ December 1 match-up against current Super Bowl champs the New England Patriots. However, coming off the drama of last week’s literal brawl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns, the Texans vs Colts game was almost destined to be down before it even started.

And, despite the touchdown prayers of DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller, TNF was down – double digits. Hovering around a season low, the Texans winning game drew a 2.7 among adults 18-49 and 9.6 million viewers.

That’s a drop of about 21% in the key demo for TNF and 20% in total audience from the fast affiliates of last week’s NFL game that became a UFC match. The November 14 gridiron action went on to earn a 4.4 among the 18-49 and 15.3 million viewers in the final numbers.

Yet, as another testament to the power of the NFL, last night’s game was still the top show on TV in primetime and gave the Murdoch-owned net a win over ABC, CBS, NBC and the CW put together.

We’ll update with the final numbers for last night’s TNF when they come in.

Sending Grey’s Anatomy (1.3 rating/6.4 million viewers) out for its final show of 2019, ABC saw the Shonda Rhimes EP’d medical drama hold even with last week in the demo. In viewers, Grey’s was up just a tad, but enough to earn its second-best audience of Season 16.

The rest of second place ABC’s Thursday saw the Disney-owned net’s A Million Little Pieces (0.8 rating/4.6 million) basically unmoved from November 14 for its Season 2 midseason finale, but How To Get Away With Murder (0.4 rating/2.22 million) ticked down a tenth in the 18-49s.

As you can see in our chart below, CBS had a main steady night with viewership bop ups and smooth demo results for Carol’s Second Act (0.6 rating/4.9 million), the Thanksgiving edition of The Unicorn (0.7 rating/5.7 million) and renewed drama Evil (0.5 rating/3.5 million). However, even though it was the most watched non-sports show of primetime, Young Sheldon (1.0 rating/8.3 million) felt some pain with a 17% decline from the Season 3 high of just seven days ago.

Over on the CW, Supernatural (0.2 rating/1.6 million) and Legacies (0.2 rating/850,000) both fell a tenth from their November 14 shows in the key demo.

Comcast-owned NBC was last among the Big 4 in fast affiliates on Thursday, as the soon to be departing again Will & Grace (0.5 rating/2.2 million) was the network’s only show to see any increase with the rise of a tenth. Otherwise, there was no change week-to-week for Perfect Harmony (0.4 rating/1.9 million) and The Good Place (0.6 rating/4.9 million) However, Law & Order: SVU (0.6 rating/3.8 million) and Superstore (0.7 rating/2.7 million) both took a stumble of a tenth from their last originals.

With that, have a great pre-Thanksgiving weekend

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