“This is Us” creams the competition

Hot drama shows its dominance, helps NBC wins Tuesday night

Note: All ratings are adults 18-49, unless otherwise noted. These are final numbers. 

If you think This Is Us was a fluke last season, things you might want to take a look at these numbers.

The hit NBC drama entered its second season Tuesday night with a remarkable 3.9 rating, up 26 percent  from last year’s premiere episode and marks a record high for the Emmy-nominated drama. This Is Us also drew 12.8 million viewers.

This Is Us was so dominant, it beat the four competing network shows in the key demo combined. This Is Us is the real deal, ladies and gentlemen. The drama also fueled NBC to win the night in the key demo, but fell to CBS in total viewers.

Leading into This Is Us, The Voice earned a 2.7 rating – nearly identical to the previous night’s score and was a time-period winner. On the other end was the premiere of the latest in the Law & Order franchise: The Melendez Brothers earned a 1.6 – down a whopping 62 percent from its lead-in. What also should be concerning for NBC with Melendez is the lack of buzz on social media.

It looks like CBS’ Tuesday night lineup is starting to losing stream. NCIS’ season premiere earned a 1.6 rating and drew 13.1 million viewers – down double-digits in both metrics. Also falling hard was Bull – the series lost a full ratings point compared to last year’s premiere, with a 1.3 rating and 9.9 million viewers. Finally NCIS: New Orleans also fell double digits year-to-year and in adults 18-49 and total viewers by putting up a 1.0 rating and drawing 8.7 million pairs of eyeballs.

Over on ABC, the network doesn’t roll out its new Tuesday night lineup until next week. With that said, Celebrity Family Feud’s season finale earned a 1.3, while a special Dancing With The Stars finished with a 1.2. It is puzzling why ABC is finishing its summer shows during the first full week of the fall season – plus, Family Feud comes on multiple times a day on at least two stations. Enough already.

At Fox, the network spun out with Lethal Weapon (1.2), The Mick (0.9) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (0.7). All shows down from double digits from their last premieres.

Of note locally, the Cubs-Cardinals game – where the Cubs were looking to clinch their third consecutive National League Central Title, drew an 8.0 household rating on CSN Chicago, obviously taking viewers away from some of the broadcast network’s prime-time offerings. The Cubs were not able to clinch, so they’ll try to do it again tonight.

The biggest night to watch for this week however, is Thursday with not only the Bears-Packers Thursday Night Football matchup on CBS, but the Cubs-Cardinals game on WGN and the highly anticipated return Will & Grace on NBC and the TGIT block on ABC.

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