TV Ratings: ‘East New York,’ ‘So Help Me Todd’ Off To Good Starts

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, according to a story in The L-A Times.

“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.

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.

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.