Update: Proving once more that overnights are totally a thing of the past, Scream Queens soared in delayed-viewing ratings, gaining 65% (2 million viewers) in recorded viewing plus another 1 million viewers on Hulu and Fox Now for a grand total of 7.3 million total viewers. It proved to be the biggest grower of the night.
Social media can be a tricky bitch sometimes.
Those of us plugged into Twitter and other more traditional media outlets have been bombarded with ads and buzz surrounding last night’s premiere of Fox’s Scream Queens. So, it comes as a bit of a shock that Ryan Murphy’s series failed to dazzle in its 2-hour premiere. Not only did it fail to dazzle, it came in fourth.
From a Variety article:
Fox’s “Scream Queens,” which had generated the most social media buzz heading into premiere week, opened with a 1.6/5 in 18-49 and 4 million viewers overall from 8 to 10, though special “rush finals” ordered by Fox show the premiere at a 1.7 in the demo. It ran fourth in its timeslot in 18-49, while placing second in adults 18-34 (1.6/7). The horror comedy from Ryan Murphy opened with a 1.7 rating in 18-49 and then held at a 1.6 for its final three half-hours, according to the prelim nationals. It tied for the 18-49 lead in the New York market with “The Voice” (2.9/10).
The two-hour premiere provided some nice time period improvement for Fox, which struggled out of the gate on the opening Tuesday a year ago. Last night’s “Scream Queens” did 60% better than the net’s lowly 1.0 nightly average for “Utopia,” “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project.” Starting next week, new comedies “Grandfathered” and “Grinder” will open the night for the net, with “Scream Queens” airing at 9.
We here at ADTV were underwhelmed by the pilot which definitely had its moments but felt massively unfocused and bloated. Yet, the amount of publicity and advanced buzz hardly forecasted similarly underwhelming viewership. Now, these early numbers don’t include numbers from delayed watching, which almost certainly would increase viewership among the target audience.
So, what are your thoughts? Have we reached Ryan Murphy saturation? Was no one clamoring for horror camp? Does this bode ill for American Horror Story: Hotel‘s premiere in two weeks?
Sound off in the comments below!
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