Yahoo News ‘MNF’ Simulcast Tops Primetime For ABC; Fox’s ‘Filthy Rich’ First New Fall Show To Arrive On Muted Opening Night Of COVID-Impacted 2020-21 Season
ABC’s simulcast of Monday Night Football topped primetime last night, when the Las Vegas Raiders christened their new home with a victory over the New Orleans Saints. ABC’s telecast drew a 1.6 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic and 6.85 million viewers in Nielsen’s Live+Same Day numbers.
Monday signaled the kickoff of sorts as well to the fall TV season, though the coronavirus pandemic has left it more muted than usual, with usage down 21% from the opening night of the 2019-20 season. Popular returning scripted series are a main driver for getting viewers back to broadcast TV in the fall, and we won’t see those until late October-November. The only actual new original to make it to screens last night was Fox’s Kim Cattrall-starring Filthy Rich (0.4, 2.87M), held over from last season. It was preceded by the network debut of L.A.’s Finest (0.5, 2.88M), which jumped into the Fox lineup after its run on Spectrum Originals.
Cattrall plays the matriarch of a conniving Southern family in Filthy Rich, which hails from Tate Taylor. Kelia Kreiling, Aubrey Dollar, Corey Cott, Benjamin Levy Aguilar, Mark L. Young, Olivia Macklin, Steve Harris and Aaron Lazar also star. The series, originally slated for the 2019 fall schedule, had been set for the 9 p.m. Tuesday slot this fall, with Season 1 of cop actioner L.A.’s Finest starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba as the lead-in for new AI drama NeXt on Mondays. NeXt later moved to the 9 p.m. Tuesday slot and now is set to premiere October 6.
As for last night, the new Fox lineup boosted the network’s previous five-week Monday average by 67% in adults 18-49 and 93% in viewers, helping it finish No. 2 overall in the demo.
CBS meanwhile premiered another Spectrum Originals transplant, Manhunt: Deadly Games (0.3, 1.57M) at 10 p.m. It followed Love Island (0.5, 1.80M), which ticked up a tenth from last Monday.
Manhunt, which stars Cameron Britton, Jack Huston, Judith Light and Carla Gugino, is the follow-up to Discovery’s Manhunt Unabomber drama that aired on Spectrum’s On Demand platform in February. It tells the story of the manhunt that ensued following the deadly terrorist attack at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Britton plays the wrongly accused Richard Jewell.
The second most-watched show of the night behind the NFL was NBC’s American Ninja Warrior (0.5, 3.38M). The two-hour episode was steady with last week in the demo while ticking up in viewers. It led into a new Dateline (0.4, 2.98M), which was steady week over week. NBC was No. 2 overall in viewers Monday.
The CW aired repeats last night.
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