CBS Ends Week Strong With 'MacGyver' As Rest Of Networks See Soft Starts

The new fall season got off to a great start last week with every new series from Monday to Wednesday registering high demo numbers. Thursday saw an end to that streak as ABC (Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) and Fox (Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ: FOXA)) both saw poor debuts, but CBS (CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS)) helped the week end on a high.

Starting with the negative news, ABC's "Notorious" and Fox's "Pitch" both under-whelmed. "Notorious" especially started weakly considering it had "Grey's Anatomy" as a lead-in and "How To Get Away With Murder" as its lead-out.

Related Link: Get Ready For Another 2-Week "Simpsons" Marathon

"Notorious" bowed to just 5.4 million viewers and a 1.1 demo in the 18–49 category which is about half of what "Grey's Anatomy" earned. Shows that debut below a 1.0 are usually early candidates for cancellation, which also doesn't bode well for Fox's "Pitch."

The baseball drama also did a 1.1 demo but had only 4.2 million viewers. "Pitch's" low numbers are surprisingly low given it had the backing of Major League Baseball and had a number of on-air sports personality cameos.

Meanwhile Friday brought another low for Fox as its critically savaged "The Exorcist" was watched by just 2.9 million viewers and a pulled a 1.0 in the demo. Analysts were not entirely surprised though, given its Friday placement on the schedule.

However, the week ended on a high note as CBS found success with its "MacGyver" reboot which was expertly paired with the long-running "Hawaii Five-0" revamp. The new "MacGyver" was watched by 10.9 million viewers and scored a 1.7 in the demo. The show's success extended to "H50," which returned up.

Full ratings data available on Benzinga Pro.

Do you have ideas for articles/interviews you'd like to see more of on Benzinga? Please email feedback@benzinga.com with your best article ideas. One person will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card!