Is 'Murphy Brown' Delivering Old News?
by EG
The revival of 90s sitcom Murphy Brown failed to make a big splash with its debut this week, and its ratings fell well short of other recent revivals of Roseanne and Will & Grace. Given that both of those revivals didn't exactly set the TV world on fire - Roseanne was canceled amid controversy, and ratings for Will & Grace plummeted after its premiere - the future might not be bright for Murphy and company. Read on for details.
The return of Murphy Brown after 20 years put up decent ratings, but nothing more than that, in preliminary numbers from Nielsen.
The CBS comedy, which featured a Hillary Clinton cameo in the premiere, drew a 5.6 rating/9 share in metered-market households Thursday night, on par with the 5.5/9 for its lead-in, Mom. Similar preliminary ratings this week have translated to about 8 million viewers.
Murphy Brown improved substantially on Life in Pieces in the same spot a year ago, but it fell well short of the premieres for two sitcom revivals last season. Roseanne opened with a huge 11.6/19 in metered-market households, and delivered a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49 and 18.44 million viewers in the final same-day ratings. Will & Grace had a 7.7/12 in metered markets for its premiere, ending up with a 3.0 in the demo and 10.19 million viewers.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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