How to get away with a hit show

Viola Davis and her students murder the competition

The good news continued to roll on for the broadcast networks (except Fox) in the young television season thus far with ABC scoring a hat trick victory last night among entertainment fare, led by the successful premiere of How To Get Away With Murder.

The debut of the Shonda Rhimes-produced show drew 14.3 million viewers at 9 p.m. CT/10 p.m. ET – even beating the New York Giants-Washington Redskins game on CBS, drawing 13.4 million.

Among adults 18-49, Murder earned a 3.9 rating among adults 18-49, matching its Scandal lead-in, which also had a 3.9. In the first hour of prime time, the tenth season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy notched a 3.1 rating – the highest mark in the time slot in eight years.

In fact, all three Shonda Rhimes-related shows provided a boon for ABC – which could give the network its most dominant Thursday night schedule since the 1978-79 season when Mork & Mindy and Barney Miller were on the schedule.

Despite what an over-opinionated, Jay Mariotti-like “TV critic” said last week, ABC is lucky to have the University Park native in their corner on Thursday nights.

In other news, CBS’ Thursday Night Football drew 16.3 million viewers and a 6.0 rating in adults 18-49, up tremendously from last week game – but it was mostly due to the two East Coast teams’ national apparel more than anything else. Given it was another blowout – this time with the Giants doing the scoring, maybe the Redskins should’ve did what their cartoon counterparts did on South Park the previous night and not take the field.

In New York, the Giants went up against retiring Deter Jeter’s final home game in Yankee Stadium on YES and drew 1.25 million viewers opposite football, and peaked at nearly 2 million viewers when Jeter won the game against the Orioles with a dramatic walk-off. It was the highest-rated baseball game of all time for any regional sports network in the New York area.

As for the rest:

– NBC’s two-hour Biggest Loser lived up to its name, earning only a 1.4 rating for the two hours, followed by the season premiere of Parenthood, which had a 1.3.

– Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t the only drama kicking off its tenth season last night: Bones did likewise, earning a 1.6 for Fox in the first hour of primetime. A repeat airing of Sleepy Hollow followed with a 0.6.

– CW was in repeats with The Vampire Diaries and Originals each earning a 0.2 rating.

All ratings are based on adults 18-49, live plus same day numbers.