Ratings News for Sunday 1/9 Premieres

Sunday was a big night for premieres as NBC debuted The Cape, Fox rolled out a new animated series Bob’s Burgers, and Showtime kicked off Shameless and Episodes along with the fourth season of Californication.

The superhero themed series The Cape drew decent ratings with 8.6 million viewers and a 2.6 18-49 rating. Those numbers aren’t great but for struggling NBC it is a good showing. Also encouraging is that the numbers were stable throughout the two hours which could be an indication that audiences liked it. If the ratings start slipping though in coming weeks it’ll end up being in danger of cancellation. There isn’t much of a buffer formed with these numbers and not much potential to bring in new viewers so it’ll need to hold on to its established audience.

Over on Fox the “Animation Domination” block had a big night thanks to the NFL Playoff game between the Eagles and Packers. That led into the block along with the overrun and boosted ratings significantly. Bob’s Burgers benefited and became the highest rated new series premiere of the season with 9.4 million viewers and a massive 4.5 18-49 rating. It is tucked in a good spot there and should remain successful but its ratings will level out when the NFL isn’t there as a lead-in.

Californication delivered Showtime its biggest premiere in series history with over a million viewers combined between its two showings. Even more impressively it hit this high mark without having Dexter as a lead-in for the first time. The Matt LeBlanc headlined comedy Episodes followed with its premiere and pulled over 900K viewers retaining 91% of Californication‘s audience. The new series Shameless became the network’s biggest drama premiere in seven years with 1.3 million viewers on the night.