Fall TV: 'This Is Us' and 'Bull' Come Out on Top

In recent weeks, two new broadcast TV series, Conviction and Notorious, got bad news from their networks. Those shows won't be getting a second season, but two other new shows are at the other end of the success spectrum. Both NBC's This Is Us and CBS's Bull are doing very well, albeit with somewhat different audiences.

Among all new series this fall, This Is Us leads the pack among young viewers, bringing in an average 2.6 rating in the18-49 age demographic. That puts the series well ahead of the second- and third place shows, CBS's Kevin Can Wait and Fox's Lethal Weapon, which average 2.1 and 1.9 respectively. In this measure, Bull comes in fourth with an average 1.8 rating.

Those numbers are most important, because the 18-49 demographic is the group that's most closely watched by advertisers and, consequently, by networks. When you also consider older voters, however, the rankings change. Taking total viewership into account, Bull takes the lead with an average of 13.2 million viewers per episode. This Is Us comes in second with 9.2 million. Kevin Can Wait hangs in there, too, taking third place in total viewership. Lethal Weapon, however, clearly resonates more with younger viewers than with older ones; it falls to seventh place in the total-viewership rankings.