'Grey's Anatomy's' Thursday Shocker Lifts ABC Show to 7-Month High
Thursday night’s shocker — well to some any way — on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy helped boost the veteran medical drama to its largest audience since its September season premiere.
Thursday’s episode saw the exit of one of the original castmembers, a plot point that had been leaked earlier Thursday in an Entertainment Weekly report and then confirmed by ABC late last night. The magazine hits newsstands on Friday, but most subscribers get it on Thursday, and many Grey’s fans knew what was coming in last night’s episode.
That certainly helped pump up the ratings for Grey’s on the opening night of the May sweep. According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, Grey’s Anatomy averaged a 2.8 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 9.4 million viewers overall in the 8 o’clock hour — matching the show’s best demo score since its season premiere in September and also drawing its largest overall audience since then.
It was up 33% in the demo from the previous week (2.1) and 22% higher than the 2.3 it did on the comparable evening in the 9 o’clock hour a year ago.
Grey’s Anatomy was the night’s No. 2 program in adults 18-49, behind only CBS’ The Big Bang Theory (3.5 rating/13 share), which was also the most-watched Thursday program overall (14.4 million viewers). Big Bang was down a bit from last week’s preliminary 3.7, which went up to a 3.9 in the nationals.
Elsewhere, the Grey’s gains did nothing to help Scandal at 9 (2.3/7 in 18-49, 7.8 million viewers overall), with the drama down a tick from last week but still strong enough to rule its hour in key demos; it was the night’s No. 2 drama in 18-49. Also down a tenth from last week was American Crime at 10 (0.9/3 in 18-49, 4.1 million viewers overall). Next week, Scandal will be preempted to make for a two-hour episode of Grey’s Anatomy that will deal with the aftermath of last night’s episode.
At CBS, the lower Big Bang Theory led into a slightly softer result at 8:30 p.m. for The Odd Couple (2.0/7 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall), though it held up well considering the strong showing in the 8:30 p.m. half-hour by ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy. In its new 9 p.m. time period, Mom (1.9/6 in 18-49, 9.0 million viewers overall) came back to earth a little after its strong 2.2 rating last week when NBC’s The Blacklist was in repeat; it placed second to Scandal in 18-49 and edged out the ABC drama in 25-54 (2.9 to 2.8). Also lower were the 9:30 p.m. repeat of Big Bang (1.7/5 in 18-49, 8.3 million viewers overall) and 10 p.m. drama Elementary (1.¾ in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall).
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