Last night was a big night for TV premieres, with Revenge, Resurrection and more making their marks on the Sunday night primetime schedule. Among the big premieres was Once Upon A Time, which took a big gamble when it announced a Frozen storyline for Season 4. As it turns out, the ABC drama's inclusion of a recent Disney property turned out pretty well, pulling in 9.4 million total viewers.
Once Upon A Time’s Season 4 premiere also did a 3.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic. As TV Line noted, that’s the best ratings the show has done in 23 months. The popularity of the Disney franchise clearly came into play in the ratings. Frozen characters, including Elsa, Hans and Anna, took center stage during the premiere while the show’s regular characters, like Emma, Regina, Mary and the rest of the gang were mostly relegated to getting stuck in the path of Elsa’s creepy snow monster. We’ll see if the Frozen plots keep investing viewers each week.
While Once Upon A Time did very well for itself during its Season 4 premiere, it didn’t win the night in the ratings. Family Guy’s crossover episode with The Simpsons also did quite well, pulling in 8.4 million total viewers an a whopping 4.5 rating in the 18-49 demo. Those numbers still weren’t good enough to compete with NBC’s Sunday Night Football, which brought in nearly 20 million viewers and a 7.6 rating.
There were some ratings losers, as well. CBS, as usual, crushed in viewers and sucked in the advertising demo, with Madam Secretary and The Good Wife’s week 2 ventures bringing in 1.4 and 1.3 ratings, respectively. Revenge also fell in the ratings. Last year’s premiere brought in 8.1 million total viewers and this year’s only pulled in 5.3 million total viewers. I guess people aren’t really as interested in Victoria Grayson’s turning the tables on Emily.
Premiere ratings are not always indicators of a show’s audience throughout the season. Still, the ratings could end up being good news for at least one program. While Sunday’s Family Guy was bolstered by the one-off crossover episode, Once Upon A Time and its continued Frozen storyline has the potential to continue pulling in great numbers on ABC on Sunday nights.
We’ll let you know how the Frozen storyline fares. In the meantime, you can catch new episodes of Once Upon A Time on ABC at 8 p.m. EST. Next week, Once Upon A Time will air "White Out," an episode that will follow Elsa trapping human Emma in an ice cave, where the temperatures are dangerously low.
