NBC’s Canadian import Transplant is putting up middling ratings numbers for its initial airings, but it has quietly racked up decent-sized audiences via delayed viewing in its first few weeks.
The medical drama added more total viewers over seven days than any other scripted program in the week of Sept. 21, and trailed only the premiere of The Masked Singer on Fox among all primetime shows, according to Nielsen’s seven-day ratings for the first week of the 2020-21 season.
Transplant also grew by 0.27 points (to 0.77) among adults 18-49, trailing only the premiere of Family Guy (which rose by 0.34 to 1.05) among scripted shows.
With relatively few scripted shows on the air in premiere week, unscripted series dominated the top of the adults 18-49 rankings. Led by The Masked Singer‘s 0.87-point gain in the key ad demographic, the top eight shows in the seven-day ratings are all unscripted. Five of them are cable shows, led by TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After, Bravo’s Below Deck Mediterranean and MTV’s Teen Mom II, which all got bumps of 0.42.
Scripted shows fared better on the total-viewer chart. Fox’s Filthy Rich (which grew by 1.4 million viewers) and L.A.’s Finest (1.26 million) and both halves of Fargo‘s two-episode premiere on FX (gains of 1.12 million and 1.2 million) made the top 10 in total viewers added.
Below is each broadcast network’s top-performing show in Nielsen’s seven-day rankings, followed by the biggest gainers on cable.
Broadcast
ABC: Dancing With the Stars (+0.26 in adults 18-49, +1.3 million total viewers)
CBS: Big Brother (Sunday) (+0.43, +1.24 million)
Fox: The Masked Singer (+0.87, +2.88 million)
NBC: Transplant (+0.27, +2.03 million)
The CW: The 100 (+0.18), Coroner (+568,000)
Cable Adults 18-49 Gains
90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After (TLC), +0.42
Below Deck Mediterranean (Bravo), +0.42
Teen Mom II (MTV), +0.42
The Real Housewives of New York City (Bravo), +0.38
Keeping Up With the Kardashians (E!), +0.37
Cable Total Viewer Gains
Fargo episode 2 (FX), +1.2 million
Fargo episode 1 (FX), +1.12 million
Below Deck Mediterranean (Bravo), +1.11 million
90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After (TLC), +998,000
The Real Housewives of New York City (Bravo), +958,000
