The series premiere of “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” was the Fox’s top-rated and most-streamed drama debut since “9-1-1: Lone Star” in January 2020, accounting for three days of multiplatform viewing data provided by the network.
The series’ Jan. 8 launch reached 851,000 viewers in its first three days of streaming on Hulu, Fox Now and VOD platforms. Per Fox, “Alert” had a Multiplatform + 3 Day, which includes both linear and streaming, rating of 1.1 in the key adults 18-49 demographic.
These are the highest drama debut numbers Fox has seen in three years, the previous being when “Lone Star” brought in 1.3 million streaming viewers and a 3.7 rating.
This data makes “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” the highest-rated debut of 2022-23 TV season, thus far, in the key demo, as well as the highest-rated drama debut since “Law & Order: Organized Crime” on NBC in 2021, per Nielsen’s Live + 3 Day metrics.
And when combining streaming data with the episode’s linear viewers (5.1 million), the “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” premiere brought in 6 million total viewers over three days. For comparison, the “Lone Star” series premiere brought in 15.3 million total viewers (14 million linear, 1.3 million on streaming) over three days in 2020, though it’s important to consider that that series had the benefit of an NFL lead-in for its premiere.
Set in the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit, each episode of the series features a life-or-death search for a missing person. The weekly cases runs alongside police officers Jason Grant (Scott Caan) and Nikki Batista’s (Dania Ramirez) season-long quest to find out the truth about their long-lost son Keith (Graham Verchere), who disappeared six years ago. Though the search deteriorated their marriage, when Jason receives a possible proof-of-life photo of Keith, he and Nikki reunite personally and professionally to continue the fight for their son. Also starring are Fivel Stewart, Ryan Broussard, Adeola Role and Petey Gibson.
“Alert: Missing Persons Unit” is co-created by John Eisendrath and Jamie Foxx. Eisendrath serves as showrunner and executive produces with Foxx, Datari Turner, J.R. Orci and Adam Kane, as well as Michael Offer for the first two episodes. Sony Pictures Television and Fox Entertainment co-produce.