How it clicks with adults 18-49 will be revealed shortly, but based on the overnights, ABC’s well-reviewed new comedy “Suburgatory” performed as well as could be expected.
Sandwiched between “The Middle” and “Modern Family,” a piece of real estate that should, theoretically, be quite valuable, the quirky new series opened to a 6.9 overnight metered market rating. It actually built on “The Middle” (6.1) and flowed well into the always-strong “Modern Family” (9.4), reports TV Media Insights.
Building on “The Middle” is key, and something last season’s failure “Better With You” could not consistently do over time. Obviously, comedy lead-outs are likely to be sampled by curious viewers (since the “commitment” is often very low), so it is far too early to declare anything about “Suburgatory”‘s future. But as far as Wednesday goes, it looks to have been a winner.
(Update: “Suburgatory” indeed premiered well, delivering a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating out of a 2.6 for “The Middle)
Not so lucky was “Happy Endings,” which squandered a good chunk of its “Modern Family” lead-in with just a 5.2 overnight. ABC is very interested in finding a truly-successful counterpart for “Modern Family” (“Cougar Town”‘s retention, at best, can be described as tolerable), but “Happy Endings” has yet to establish itself as the obvious answer.
(Update: “Happy Endings” opened to a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating. Although the actual number was a bit better than would have been expected and certainly not terrible as a stand-alone, the retention out of “Modern Family,” 5.6, was a very disappointing 57%.)
— “Revenge” fell 11% from its premiere overnights to a 6.2. Though pure retentionists will excuse the fall due to the far-weaker lead-in from “Happy Endings” (versus “Modern Family” last week), there definitely should be some self-starting element to the drama (given that it’s a serialized drama leading out of a comedy). If the demo drop is proportionate, the dip from the premiere is not terrible, but the show will not be able to fall drastically farther.
(Update: “Revenge” dropped to a 2.7 in adults 18-49)
