TV ratings: ABC’s ‘black-ish’ starts strong with ‘Modern Family’ help

ABC’s “Modern Family” has still got it.

The five-time Emmy award-winning show’s season six premiere won the night Wednesday with a rating of 3.7 in the key 18-to-49-year-old demographic, according to Nielsen.

It notched almost 11 million viewers in its 9 p.m. timeslot. Though down 10% from last season’s fall premiere, which earned a rating of 4.1 in the key demo, it drew in its largest audience in nearly a year.

The lead-in helped ABC’s new series “black-ish” take the No. 2 spot. The show earned a rating of 3.3 in the key demo.

The series, which follows three generations of a black, upper-middle-class Los Angeles family, averaged 10.7 million viewers.

According to data provided by Canvs, a social TV platform created by social-media insight firm Mashwork, the show’s premiere drew 27,941 reactions out of the 72,047 tweets. Of these reaction tweets, 20% said the show was “good,” 21% said the show was “funny” and 11% “didn’t like” it.

“The Goldbergs,” which earned a rating of 2.3 in the key demo, and “Nashville,” which earned a rating of 1.5, saw slight declines in viewership from last season’s premieres.

ABC earned a rating of 2.4 and averaged 7.8 million viewers.

With a rating of 2.6, CBS was the No. 1 most-watched network in the key demo. The network’s season 29 premiere of “Survivor” was up 4% from last fall’s premiere with a rating of 2.7 in the key demo. It was the third-most-watched program of the night and fifth overall, averaging 9.6 million viewers.

Also on the network, “Big Brother” was up 4% from last year’s finale. The privacy deprivation show’s season finale earned a rating of 2.6 in the key demo and averaged 6.9 million viewers. The network averaged 8.3 million viewers.

Meanwhile, NBC won the night with 9.4 million viewers.

The regular time slot debut of “The Mysteries of Laura” earned a rating of 1.5 in the key demo. It fell 25% from last week’s preview and averaged 9.8 million viewers.

Also on the network, the 15th season premiere of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” earned a rating of 2.1 in the key demo. With 10 million viewers, the premiere was the third most watched program of the night.

Fox’s “Red Band Society” earned a rating of 1.0 in the key demo, a slight decrease from last week. The show drew 3.4 million viewers and earned a rating of 1.0 in the key demo. The network also aired “Hell’s Kitchen,” which earned a rating of 1.3 in the key demo.

For more news on the entertainment industry, follow me @saba_h