'Last Man Standing' Returns to Bigger Ratings on Fox
by EG
Last week's revival of Murphy Brown on CBS was seen as disappointing when it drew only 7.5 million viewers, but the standards are apparently lower at Fox. That network revived Last Man Standing, a sitcom starring Trump supporter Tim Allen, and the season premiere attracted just 500,000 more viewers than Murphy Brown did, leading to claims of "big" ratings on Fox News. Is it another example of Trumpian exaggeration? Read on decide for yourself.
Via Deadline.
Between the two revivals this fall — of a comedy with a liberal central character and tone, the Trump-bashing Murphy Brown, and a conservative one, Last Man Standing, it’s the latter that netted strong ratings in its return.
The Season 7 premiere of Last Man Standing on a new network, Fox, drew a 1.8 in adults 18-49 Live+same day rating and 8.0 total viewers. That was well above the series’ most recent Season 6 premiere on ABC in fall 2016 (1.1, 6 million). In fact, this was LMS‘ best demo L+SD delivery since the Season 2 debut in 2012 which marked the comedy’s first outing on Friday after an initial run on Tuesday.
Despite airing on the slower-trafficked Friday night, LMS topped the Thursday premiere of CBS’ Murphy Brown (1.1, 7.5 million). Like with the huge ratings return of Roseanne last spring, the strong numbers for LMS likely indicate an appetite for shows that provide a different perspective to most fare on TV.
LMS, the top program on Friday in 18-49, led Fox’s switch from single-camera to multi-camera comedies. Its initial numbers validate the switch, as it was Fox’s most watched comedy on any night in nearly seven years excluding NFL lead-ins, since October 2011 (The Simpsons, 8.1 million).
Get the rest of the story at Deadline.
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