Last spring, CBS made the intriguing decision to air its female-led superhero show on Monday nights in the 8 p.m. timeslot opposite Fox’s own DC Comics-based series Gotham. At the time, many were concerned that both shows would end up having audience crossover from DC fans, leading to a ratings problem. However, now the ratings are in, and Supergirl totally blew Gotham out of the water. More than 12 million total viewers tuned in for the big, bold Supergirl premiere.
Preliminary ratings are out this morning, and Nielsen’s numbers indicate that Supergirl averaged 12.9 million total viewers from 8:30-9:30 p.m. on Monday. Those huge numbers allowed the CBS drama to pull in a 3.2 ratings share in the 18-49 demographic. This means that not only did a lot of people watch Supergirl, but young people were responsible for a significant chunk of the audience. Which is cool, since Supergirl is totally a show that’s acceptable for a young adult audience.
It should be noted that last night’s Supergirl aired at 8:30 p.m. ET, following a Big Bang Theory lead-in, so the numbers for that show and Gotham didn’t wholly overlap. As it turns out, too, the people who are sticking with the gleefully sadistic Gotham are not the same people who were keen to watch Supergirl live, as there was no real adverse affect on Gotham’s numbers last night. Mondays outing did 4.3 million total viewers and a 1.5 rating. This is actually an uptick in overall viewers from the last couple of episodes, so good for Gotham.
Since we’re talking DC shows on major networks right now, we’d also like to point out that Gotham had an incredibly strong premiere last fall. Unfortunately, the numbers continued dropping throughout Season 1, leading to the show doing a steady but unspectacular under 2.0 rating in Live+Same Day numbers these days. Premieres are often the highest-rated episode of a series, so Supergirl could potentially drop off over the next several weeks, especially without the Big Bang Theory lead-in, as that comedy is heading back to Thursday nights.
Still, Supergirl absolutely dominated in the ratings last night. Variety is reporting that the show is the #1 new series premiere this fall. Kara Zor-El’s story has edged out NBC’s Blindspot, which brought in a 3.1 rating. Other big premieres earlier in 2015 included Empire, Fear The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul. In addition, Supergirl has also been successful with critics, too.
You can catch new episodes of Supergirl on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET, only on CBS. In addition, here’s what has yet to premiere this fall.
