‘This Is Us’ & ‘Lethal Weapon’ Lead Premiere Tuesday Live+3 Ratings Gains

After the delayed viewing fireworks for the Monday series where two shows, NBC’s Manifest and ABC’s The Good Doctor, added more than 5 million viewers to their premiere tallies in three days of playback, we have a more run-of-the-mill Live+3 results for Premiere Tuesday.

The Season 3 premiere of NBC’s This Is Us led the pack with the largest absolute L+3 lifts: +1.28 rating points in 18-49 (3.0 to 4.3) and +4.0 million viewers overall (10.6 million to 14.6 million). The family drama widened its lead over CBS’ The Big Bang Theory (3.7 18-49 rating in L+3) for the No.1 non-sports program of the week honors in adults 18-49. (Long-time leader BBT is in a tight race for No.2 in the demo and No. 1 in total viewers with NBC’s hot newcomer Manifest, which gained on the veteran in L+3 – 3.6 vs. 3.7 in 18-48 and 16.1 vs. 16. 8 million viewers)

The third season opener of Fox’s revamped Lethal Weapon, which introduced new co-lead, Seann Willian Scott, posted the highest percentage gains on Tuesday, +59% in 18-49 (0.8 to 1.3) and 63% in total viewers (3.4 million to 5.6 million).

This is believed to be a series high demo % L3 lift for Lethal Weapon whose Season 3 premiere is now running ahead of the Season 2 finale by +8% in 18-49.

In absolute gains, This Is Us was followed by its lead-out, freshman NBC drama New Amsterdam, which added +0.84 18-49 rating points (1.8 to 2.7) and almost as many viewers as This Is Us, 3.9 million (8.4 million to 12.3 million).

Here are the L+3 gains for all Tuesday series on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

network…………………….adults 18-49 rating…………….total viewers (in millions)

ABC………………………….L+SD….L3…..Lift… %Lift……L+SD…L3……Lift… %Lift

Dancing w/the Stars    0.9       1.1     +0.17 +19%      6.6      7.6    +1.1 +16%

CBS…………………………..L+SD….L3…..Lift… %Lift…….L+SD…L3……Lift… %Lift

NCIS                              1.4         2.0   +0.6  +38%      12.6     15.5   +3.0  +24%

FBI                                  1.3        1.8    +0.5  +42%      10.1      12.9    +2.8 +28%

NCIS: New Orleans       1.0       1.5     +0.5  +49%      9.0        11.7   +2.8  +31%

NBC…………………………..L+SD….L3…..Lift… %Lift…….L+SD…L3……Lift… %Lift

The Voice                       2.2        2.5  +0.3  +14%        9.9       11.3    +1.4 +14%

This Is Us                       3.0        4.3   +1.3  +43%       10.6      14.6    +4.0 +38%

New Amsterdam            1.8        2.7  +0.8  +46%        8.4       12.3    +3.9 +46%

FOX…………………………..L+SD….L3…..Lift… %Lift…….L+SD…L3……Lift… %Lift

The Gifted                      0.9       1.3    +0.4 +42%       2.6      3.8    +1.2  +46%

Lethal Weapon               0.8       1.3    +0.5 +59%       3.4      5.6    +2.2 +63%