‘Quantico’ Gets 2nd Encore After Strong L3 Ratings, ‘Beyond the Tank’ Pushed

Quantico, starring Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra, has emerged as a potential breakout new series, and ABC is getting firmly behind it.

Three days before the series premiere, the network last Thursday pushed the return of reality series Beyond the Tank, originally slated for Sept. 29, by a week to give the Quantico opener more sampling with an encore airing two days later in the Tuesday 10 PM slot (which actually was Quantico‘s original berth before ABC moved it to Sunday.)

Quantico got off to a solid start with a 1.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 7.1 million viewers in Live+same day. The premiere added respectable 1.0 demo rating and 4.8 million viewers for the Tuesday encore.

Then the Live+3 numbers for the premiere came in today, and they were big. In adults 18-49, the opener added 1.18 rating in 18-49, second only to NBC’s Blindspot among new fall series, for a +62% lift, second only to Fox’s Scream Queens (65%). In total viewers, Quantico added 4 million viewers for the biggest percentage gain among all programs — new and returning — during premiere week, 56%. That brings Quantico‘s premiere viewership for the three days after the debut to almost 16 million, including the encore telecast.

ABC took notice, and this afternoon announced that the Beyond the Tank season premiere, slated for Oct. 6, will be pushed another week, so the second episode of Quantico can get an encore in the time slot too. A hold or a reasonable Week 2 drop would seal a Back 9 order for the terrorism thriller.