CBS parlayed an impressive performance from newcomer “Blue Bloods” into a victory in the first true Friday of the fall season.
The new Tom Selleck vehicle opened to a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating with 12.8 million viewers. While the demo rating would hardly be classified as strong on any other week night, there were no dreams about this show skewing towards young viewers. More importantly, the rating was still quite strong for a Friday series, and no one is going to dismiss the importance of garnering nearly 13 million viewers for a series premiere.
Though down dramatically from its Wednesday average, “CSI: NY” remained a reliable player with a 2.0 and 10.3 million viewers. CBS was looking to make improvements on Friday while preventing the series from falling off the face of the earth, and week one was promising in achieving that objective.
8PM entry “Medium” was soft with a 1.4 and 6.1 million viewers.
While CBS scored well with its Friday scripted fare, NBC did not. Following a decent premiere for “Dateline” (6.5 million, 1.4 adults 18-49 rating at 8PM; 7.9 million, 1.8 adults 18-49 rating at 9PM), freshman series “Outlaw” absolutely bombed with a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating and 5.0 million viewers. Those who sampled the show in its premiere last were left unimpressed, and when the dust settled, Tom Selleck drew significantly better than Jimmy Smits at 10PM on Friday.
Other original programming ratings: FOX’s “The Good Guys” (2.9 million, 0.9), ABC’s “20/20” (5.4 million, 1.5), The CW’s “Smallville” (2.9 million, 1.3) and “Supernatural” (2.8 million, 1.2).