Studio Session MJBaLrIyGE THoward - H 2015
FOXTen episodes in and the champagne still floweth freely … the latest episode of Empire rose again — at least among total viewers — during the penultimate episode of its wildly successful freshman season.
Read More Fox Plots ‘Empire’ Season 2: Lee Daniels Courts Oprah, Pushes for Less “Opulence”
But the show did finally halt its nearly unprecedented eight-week growth streak in the key demo. Wednesday’s episode brought in a 5.6 rating among adults 18-49, per Nielsen fast national returns. That’s off a tenth from last week’s initial score. As has been the custom for the past few weeks, the slight American Idol spillover into the hour likely means that final ratings this afternoon will give Empire an even bigger number. But it will have to rise to a 5.8 to tie last week’s official rating, the series high.
With a tentative 14.7 million viewers, Empire is already pacing well ahead of last week’s final score among total viewers: 14.33 million. So while many will be eager to point out that the show (maybe) finally stopped growing with adults 18-49, it’s still improving its audience.
Regardless of the minor adjustments later on Thursday afternoon, all eyes will be on next week’s two-hour finale when all of the attention may leave Empire poised to grow again.
See more 41 Broadcast Series That Are Already Renewed
As for American Idol, the series improved two-tenths of a point from last week to a 2.3 rating with adults 18-49, though the show was hardly instrumental in Fox’s Wednesday win.
CBS had a steady episode of Survivor (2.2 adults) followed by a lifted Criminal Minds (2.1 adults), up two-tenths of a point from last week. CSI: Cyber also had some very promising news. The new drama held all of its premiere rating of a 1.8 in the key demo.
Both ABC and NBC aired repeats for the night while The 100 aired its season finale on The CW, averaging a 0.4 with adults 18-49.
