This Is Us | Ron Batzdorff/NBC
Over the course of the second season, episodes of “This Is Us” have generally been drawing between a 2.5-2.8 adults 18-49 rating and 9.5-10.5 million overall live+same-day viewers.
Aided by its blockbuster lead-in support, Sunday’s post-Super Bowl edition dramatically topped those numbers. It drew a whopping 9.3 adults 18-49 rating and 26.97 million overall viewers.
Only a small portion of the new samplers — at best — tuned into Tuesday’s episode.
According to fast national data posted by Showbuzz, Tuesday’s “This Is Us” drew a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating and averaged 10.07 million overall viewers.
While the numbers top the 2.5 rating and 9.37 million viewer mark drawn by the previous Tuesday episode, they are within the typical range for a second-season “This Is Us” broadcast. They do not reflect a meaningful post-Super Bowl gain (and it’s also worth noting that the gain may simply be due to regular fans wanting to see how the show followed up on the dramatic post-Super Bowl episode rather than new fans joining the show).
“This Is Us,” obviously, performed very well Tuesday. It was the night’s #1 show in adults 18-49 and #3 show in overall viewers. NBC has no reason to be anything but happy about the performance.
The numbers do, however, further underscore the difficulty of turning “special event samplers” into “long-term viewers.”
Recent post-Super Bowl offerings like “24: Legacy,” “The Blacklist” and “New Girl” also failed to derive long-term ratings benefits from their high-profile exposure. Earlier this season, FOX’s “The Orville” and “The Resident” received big audiences for post-football premieres — and then performed at fairly “normal” levels once relocating to their regular timeslots.
NBC’s Tuesday lineup also included “Ellen’s Game Of Games” (1.9, 7.67 million) and “Chicago Med” (1.5, 7.37 million).