Supergirl Premiere Draws Big Audience

CBS' decision to hold off the debut of Supergirl until late October and let hype build in the meantime paid off, as the series' first episode on Monday night pulled in the best ratings numbers of any new series this fall.

Supergirl's debut episode attracted 13 million total viewers and earned a 3.1 rating in the 18-49 age demographic. In that demographic, which is the most important one for networks and advertisers, Supergirl matched the numbers of the premiere of Blindspot, which had been to this point the best debut of the fall. In total viewers, Supergirl easily bested Blindspot.

An important caveat is that this week Supergirl benefitted from a lead-in from The Big Bang Theory, the highest-rated comedy on TV at the moment. Next week, when Big Bang moves to Thursday and Supergirl takes over Monday's 8pm slot, Supergirl won't get the same boost. Will this week's audiences tune to Supergirl if they aren't already watching CBS when the show starts? We'll see.

Another interesting fact in the ratings for Supergirl is that the show's audience was less than half female in the key age demographics. That's somewhat surprising, given that the introduction of a strong new super heroine was expected to attract large numbers of female viewers.