‘Last Man Standing’ Returns To Strong Ratings On Fox

'Last Man Standing'

After the first week of the television season, Tim Allen has bragging rights over Candice Bergen.

The Associated Press citing Nielsen figures reports the return of Allen’s sitcom, “Last Man Standing,” reached 8.1 million viewers on Fox last Friday night. That was more than the 7.5 million people who tuned into the revival of Bergen’s “Murphy Brown” on CBS the night before.

CBS heavily promoted the return of “Murphy Brown” after two decades, and Hillary Clinton had a cameo in the first episode. But the show’s first episode back couldn’t match the numbers reached by other recent revivals like “Roseanne” (18.4 million for its first episode back on ABC last March) and “Will & Grace” (10.2 million on NBC a year ago).

“Last Man Standing” had been gone just a year, canceled by ABC in a decision that Allen said left him “stunned and blindsided.” But Fox brought it back, and on its first week it was the network’s most popular entertainment show, particularly impressive considering Friday is one of the least-watched nights on television.

ABC said its decision was strictly business after it decided against airing comedies on Friday, but there were political overtones. Allen supports President Donald Trump and his lead character, Mike Baxter, has been described as Archie Bunker with a college education. Some conservatives said the cancellation was proof that they weren’t valued as customers in liberal Hollywood.

For the week, CBS averaged 8.4 million viewers in prime time to lead the way. NBC had 7.9 million, ABC had 5.4 million, Fox had 5.3 million, Univision had 1.32 million, Telemundo had 1.25 million, ION Television had 1.1 million and the CW had 640,000.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 3.15 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.46 million, MSNBC had 2.06 million, CNN had 1.17 million and USA had 1.15 million.

FNC, which will celebrate its 22nd anniversary this weekend, marked 67 consecutive quarters as the No. 1 cable news network in total viewers across total day and prime time, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data.

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ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.2 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” was second with 7.6 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.7 million viewers.

Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Sept. 24-30. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. NFL Football: Baltimore at Pittsburgh, NBC, 17.92 million.
2. NFL Football: Minnesota at L.A. Rams, Fox, 14.51 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 13.54 million.
4. “The Big Bang Theory” (Monday), CBS, 12.93 million.
5. “NCIS,” CBS, 12.57 million.
6. NFL Football: Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay, ESPN, 12.22 million.
7. “The Big Bang Theory” (Thursday), CBS 12.05 million.
8. “NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 11.19 million.
9. “Young Sheldon” (Monday), CBS, 10.59 million.
10. “This is Us,” NBC, 10.55 million.

11. “Manifest,” NBC, 10.41 million.
12. “Young Sheldon” (Thursday), CBS, 10.21 million.
13. “God Friended Me,” CBS, 10.14 million.
14. “FBI,” CBS, 10.09 million.
15. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 9.9 million.
16. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 9.67 million.
17. College Football: Ohio St. at Penn St., ABC, 9.14 million.
18. “NCIS: New Orleans,” CBS, 8.97 million.
19. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 8.79 million.
20. “NCIS: Los Angeles,” CBS, 8.75 million.