“Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23” was not a ratings standout in its premiere Wednesday, but given disappointing lead-in support from “Modern Family,” it performed about as well as most would have expected.
Wednesday’s “Family” delivered a very lukewarm 4.1 adults 18-49 rating and 10.3 million viewers, a far cry from the 5.5-6.0 numbers it was delivering in the fall. As a result, the 2.9 and 7.0 million for “Don’t Trust the B” is a contextually far more impressive than it was when shows like “Happy Endings” and “Cougar Town” delivered comparable numbers out of far-higher-rated episodes of the flagship.
Going against the final half hour of “American Idol” did not make the debut any easier.
Of course, given the natural curiosity associated with a premiere–especially a well-promoted comedy airing out of ABC’s biggest show–there was undoubtedly a “premiere spike” at play. If “The B” can’t hold onto a sizable portion of this week’s audience, ratings reports in the coming weeks will be far less flattering.
