The sixth season premiere of “The Conners” was the most-viewed new comedy show on broadcast television last week, Nielsen data shows, as ABC unveiled new seasons of three of its most popular sitcoms.
"The Conners" stars Michael Fishman as D.J. Conner, Jayden Rey as Mary Conner, Lecy Goranson as ... [+]
“The Conners” premiered to 3.6 million viewers to become most-watched new comedy of the week and the 15th most-viewed program across all of broadcast television in Super Bowl week.
"The Conners" was out-rated by the most-viewed Super Bowl in history and related programs, as well as a number of popular dramas ("Chicago Med," "Law & Order," "FBI") and a rerun of the season six finale of "Young Sheldon" on CBS (3.99 million viewers).
ABC also premiered new seasons of two other popular comedies in the same week—”Abbott Elementary” and “Not Dead Yet.”
The much-anticipated premiere of “Abbott Elementary,” which has been picked up for a fourth season, drew 2.8 million live viewers and "Not Dead Yet" was viewed by 2.56 million.
Both “Abbott Elementary” and “Not Dead Yet”—new episodes of which are available on Hulu the day after they hit the airwaves—have historically hit their peak in delayed viewing.
The Season 2 premiere of "Abbott Elementary" drew 2.9 million people but viewership numbers jumped to 7 million after one week, according to Variety, and the same phenomena was seen with the first season of “Not Dead Yet”—the show’s same-day average audience was 3.61 million for its premiere, a number that ballooned to 10.2 million over the first five weeks.
The delayed viewing of "Not Dead Yet" gave the show the largest debut audience for a comedy on ABC in years, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The title was previously held by "The Conners," which premiered to 10.56 million viewers in 2018.
9.1 million viewers. That's, on average, how many people watched each episode of the second season of "Abbott Elementary" in delayed viewing.
“I hope that to executives and to businesspeople across our industry we have destroyed the fallacy that a show with a majority Black cast can’t be a four-quadrant hit and can’t make a ton of money for the company that is producing it,” Justin Halpern, co-showrunner of Abbott Elementary told the Hollywood Reporter.
The ratings landscape has been turned on its head by the idea of delayed and multi-platform viewing. On-air, first-day viewing was once the metric by which all TV show success was judged, but streaming has given a second chance for shows to hit it big and provided a landscape in which older shows can reach new audiences. While streaming data remains largely shielded from the public by many of the industry's major players, companies like Nielsen and the broadcast networks themselves have begun to factor in streaming and multi-day audiences when considering viewership. These days, same-day audience numbers, DVR use and streaming viewership are used to paint a clearer, multi-day picture of a show's success in the weeks following its initial release.
The premiere season has just begun. Popular shows like "Young Sheldon," Ghosts," "Blue Bloods," "The Rookie," "The Good Doctor," "The Voice" and "Survivor" will all premiere new seasons later this month.