We’re almost a month into the broadcast TV fall 2022 season and we’ve already got a few winners and losers to discuss when it comes to new scripted series.
There are multiple ways to categorize a victory in the this ever-evolving TV landscape, but for the purposes of this story looking at the debuts of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and The CW’s new shows, Variety has ranked the programs by the total viewers that each series premiere racked up, according to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data.
With that methodology in mind, the bottom of the list is, as usual, made up of “Supernatural” and “Walker” prequel shows that aired on the younger-skewing CW network (which was recently acquired by Nexstar from former majority owners Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery), while the higher end includes a trio of new CBS series: “Fire Country,” “East New York” and “So Help Me Todd.”
Elsewhere, a “Quantum Leap” reboot on NBC and spinoff “The Rookie: Feds” on ABC put up less-than desirable launch audiences, with a new Fox drama and ABC mystery “Alaska Daily,” filling out the middle of the rankings.
While it’s important to note that these Week 1 tune-ins don’t display how the show is doing to-date, it does reveal what the appetite for this new content — and general awareness of its existence in the extra-peak peak TV era — was like from the start.
See the rankings below, with least-watched premiere first and most-watched premiere last. This list will be updated as other fall scripted series debut.