TV Ratings: ‘Dr. Ken’ Debuts Solid, ‘Blue Bloods’ Viewership Rises, ABC Wins Night In Demo

Now nearly two weeks in, the new TV season has started to settle in a bit. But that doesn’t mean new shows aren’t still making their debuts – even on Fridays. And the premiere of comedy Dr. Ken (1.4/6) was a nice jolt for ABC, in fact the sitcom was the top scripted show of the night.

Coming off the second week of the latest season of Last Man Standing (1.2/5), which bopped up 9% from its September 25 show, the semi-autobiographical Ken Jeong-led show about a doctor with less than zero bedside manner was up 7.6% from the debut of the now cancelled Cristela on October 10 last year in the same slot. With a 17% build on its lead in among adults 18-49, Dr. Ken delivered the best result ABC has had in the slot since November 2012 with Malibu Country.

Adding to ABC’s bragging rights is that LMS is only the second show this season so far, after fellow ABCer The Middle, to build on its premiere. And then add that Dr. Ken’s 6.7 million viewership actually topped the audience of Fox’s debuts of Grandfathered and The Grinder (both of which had a 1.5 rating) on the usually much more viewed Tuesday and you have a happy network that once again topped Friday with a 1.4/5 rating. BTW – Fox encored both Grandfathered (0.8/3) and The Grinder (0.6/2) last night.

Part of ABC’s demo success on Friday was Week 2 of the new season of Shark Tank (1.7/6), the highest rated show of the night – even if it was even with last week’s final numbers. ABC ended the night with 20/20 (1.1/4), which was down 15% from its September 25 show.

Over on CBS, it was all solid from last week’s returning shows’ premieres. The Amazing Race (1.2/5), Hawaii Five-O (1.0/4) and Blue Bloods (1.3/5) were all even with last week – a scheduling feat unto itself in this era. The top rated show of the night with 11.09 million watching, the Tom Selleck-led Blue Bloods actually saw a viewership lift of 10% from its Season 6 opener last week. With that CBS took the night in total audience with 8.72 million viewers over primetime

As Blue Bloods‘ viewership rose and ABC saw a debut, The CW saw a season finale for Masters Of Illusion (0.3/1). Both back-to-back episodes at 8 PM and 8:30 PM of the Dean Cain-hosted magic show series were down 25% from last week. That is the same percentage that the 8:30 PM Season 4 finale last night was down from the 9:30 PM Season 3 ender on February 6, this year. At 9 PM last night, America’s Next Top Model (0.4/1) was even with its airing last week, as was NBC’s only new offering of the night, Dateline (1.0/4), which had an encore of The Player (0.6/2) as its lead-in.

Next week? NBC will be the one with the Friday debuts amidst increased competition.