ABC may have found a magical Friday formula. While I was a little skeptical about the network moving its comedy Last Man Standing to Fridays, to air toe to toe with Shark Tank and the brand new comedy Malibu Country, so far the new Friday programming block is off to a strong start.
Starting out the new block on Friday was Last Man Standing, which brought in 7.8 million total viewers in its Season 2 premiere. These numbers aren’t as high as the show pulled in its series premiere, but the ratings are higher than the show brought in towards the end of its first cycle. According to Deadline, Malibu Country’s series premiere fared even better, bringing in 8.9 million total viewers.
The return of TGIF pushed Shark Tank into the 9 p.m. timeslot, where its ratings were likely boosted by the earlier programming. As it has been doing for most of this season, Shark Tank continued to improve in the ratings, bringing in 7.3 million total viewers. Overall, ABC won the night in both total viewers and the coveted 18-49 demographic, beating out NBC, where Grimm was down, CBS, where Undercover Boss’ premiere failed to impress, and Fox, where Kitchen Nightmares and Fringe only pulled in around 3 million total viewers.
I’m not sure how Shark Tank exactly fits in with a couple of breezy comedies, but it’s a formula that seems to be working thus far. The true test will be whether the shows can hold in the rankings over the next few weeks, but ABC is certainly off to a smooth start.
