‘East New York,’ ‘So Help Me Todd’ get off to good starts on CBS

The CBS police procedural drama “East New York” drew the largest audience among the week’s four premieres on the five major broadcast networks, thanks in part to following “The Equalizer,” the week’s top-ranked entertainment program.

“East New York” averaged 5.271 million viewers, 19th among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between Sept. 26 and Sunday and 14th among non-NFL programs, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.

“The Equalizer” averaged 7.094 million viewers, seventh for the week behind two NFL games, three NFL pregame shows and the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes.” “East New York” retained 74.3% of “The Equalizer’s” audience.

CBS’ other premiere, “So Help Me Todd,” drew the second-largest audience among the seven premieres so far in the 2022-23 prime-time television season, averaging 4.819 million viewers, 21st for the week and 16th among non-NFL programs. The legal dramedy won its 9-10 p.m. Thursday time slot and retained 74.6% of the audience of “Ghosts,” which preceded it.

ABC’s lone premiere, the police procedural “The Rookie: Feds,” averaged 2.172 million viewers, 60th among the week’s broadcast programs. Its overall rank was not available.

The U.S. premiere of the Canadian legal drama “Family Law” on the CW averaged 299,000 viewers, 216th among broadcast programs and 10th among CW programs.

CBS’ “60 Minutes” was the most popular non-NFL program for the second time in the 2-week-old season, averaging 10.274 million viewers, sixth for the week.

For the fourth time in the 4-week-old NFL season, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” topped the prime-time ratings, with the Kansas City Chiefs’ 41-31 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers averaging 20.853 million viewers, its second-largest audience of the season behind Tampa Bay’s 19-3 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the season opener on Sept. 11, which averaged 23.296 million viewers.

The total audience for Sunday’s game, which includes streaming viewership on Peacock, NBC Sports and NFL digital platforms, was 22.2 million viewers, also second for the season behind the 25 million for the season opener, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics figures.

NBC finished first for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 6.13 million viewers. CBS was second, averaging 5.7 million, and ABC third, averaging 4.04 million viewers.

“Chicago Fire” had NBC’s biggest audience for a non-NFL program for the second consecutive week, averaging 6.726 million viewers, 10th overall and fifth among non-NFL programs.

ABC’s portion of the “Monday Night Football” simulcast was its ratings leader, averaging 10.175 million. ESPN’s portion of the Cowboys’ 23-16 victory over the New York Giants averaged 7.739 million viewers, first among cable programs. The combined audience was 17.914 million, second for the week.

ABC’s top-rated non-sports program was the season premiere of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” 31st for the week, averaging 3.775 million viewers.

Fox averaged 2.2 million viewers, topped by the procedural drama “9-1-1,” 27th for the week and 21st among non-sports programs, averaging 4.556 million.

The CW averaged 300,000 viewers. The 8 p.m. Friday rerun of the magic competition series “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” was its biggest draw, averaging 462,000 viewers, 181th among broadcast programs.

The top 20 prime-time programs consisted of two NFL games; three NFL pregame shows; “60 Minutes”; nine CBS scripted programs; NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.”; and two episodes of NBC’s singing competition “The Voice.”

ESPN returned to the top of the cable ratings after a one-week absence, averaging 2.149 million viewers. Fox News Channel averaged 2.121 million viewers to finish second for the fourth time in five weeks. MSNBC averaged 1.147 million viewers for its fifth consecutive third-place finish after seven consecutive second-place finishes.

“Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” drew the second-largest weekly audience for a Netflix program, with viewers spending 299.84 million hours watching the 10-episode limited series the first full week it was available, according to figures released by the streaming service.

Viewership was up 52.8% from the 196.2 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.

The only Netflix program to be watched more during any week was the fourth season of “Stranger Things,” which was watched for 335.01 million hours the week of May 30-June 5, the first full week it was available.

“Lou” was Netflix’s most-streamed movie, with viewers spending 46.19 million hours watching the thriller the first full week it was available.