ABC banked on a “Station 19” and “Grey’s Anatomy” crossover event to mark the season premieres (fifth and 18th, respectively) for both shows on Sept. 30, and it paid off for the alphabet network. Per Nielsen’s Live+Same Day fast nationals, the firefighter drama, which aired at 8 p.m., scored the most viewers of the night — 4.78 million total — and the longrunning medical drama drew in 4.63 million viewers, earning third place in terms of watchers.
During the “Station 19” and “Grey’s Anatomy” crossover event last night, the annual Phoenix Festival causes problems to be solved by the teams of Station 19 and the Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, all while Sullivan (Boris Kodjoe) and Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) must work on their marriage, Dean (Okieriete Onaodowan) comes to terms with his feelings for Vic (Barrett Doss) and Travis (Jay Hayden) revisits an old lover. Meanwhile, doctors treat a patient injured by illegal fireworks at the festival, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) tries to hire new doctors and Owen (Kevin McKidd) and Teddy (Kim Raver) take the next step together. And someone from Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) past comes back. Both shows obtained a 0.7 rating in the key, adults ages 18-49 demographic, but neither were the winners in that category — instead, that distinction goes to NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which earned a 0.8 in the key demo and 4.71 million viewers.
ABC’s other Thursday primetime season debut, “Big Sky,” lured 3.13 viewers and a 0.4 rating in the key demo at 10 p.m.
Also on TV last night were reruns, starting with CBS’ “Young Sheldon” and Fox’s “The Big Leap” at 8 p.m., and Fox’s “Our Kind of People” at 9 p.m. Both back-to-back new episodes of NBC’s “Law & Order: Organized Crime” starring Christopher Meloni scored 0.7’s in the key demo, with a marginal change in viewership between its 9 and 10 p.m. airings (4.29 and 4.13, respectively). CBS’ “The Price is Right Celebrates 50 Years” special got a 0.5 rating and 3.80 million viewers, while the CW’s new episodes of “Coroner” and “The Outpost” got 0.1’s.