Matlock earlier this week became the first new series of the 2024-25 broadcast season to get a renewal just two episodes in. The drama starring Kathy Bates has backed up CBS’ early vote of confidence with another strong showing. In its third airing and second in its regular Thursday 9 PM slot, Matlock drew 6.479 million viewers last night in Live+Same Day per Nielsen, up 1.5% from last week.
Expected to join Matlock on the list of early renewals is Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, which was off just 2.4% from its premiere last week, averaging 6.403M viewers. The Young Sheldon spinoff and Matlock were once again the most watched programs of the night in a photo finish, this time with the legal drama on top.
The two shows remain the No.2 and 3 series in L+SD linear viewership only behind CBS’ sophomore heavyweight Tracker, which posted another 7M+ L+SD delivery (7.46M) on Sunday and has effectively sealed a Season 3 renewal.
CBS once again had the four most watched programs of the night, with No.3 Ghosts (5.546M) and No. 4 Elsbeth (4.446), down 0.4% and 6.5% from last week, respectively. After tying Ghosts for No.1 in adults 18-49 last week, Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage was outright No. 1 in the demo with 0.53 rating, up 13%. (It also remained No.1 in adults 25-54 ( 0.9, +8%).
The Thursday entertainment offerings benefited from not facing baseball playoffs this week after having to compete with both NFL and MLB last Thursday, with several other shows, including ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (2.172M) and NBC’s Law & Order (3.332M), Law & Order: SVU (3.435M) and Found (2.116M), posting week-to-week linear viewership gains.
Elsewhere Thursday, ABC’s 9-1-1 (3.977M) was the most watched non-CBS program of the night. Its lead-out, new medical drama Doctor Odyssey continued its slide, with Episode 5 posting the fifth consecutive L+SD viewership decline to 2.595M (vs. 4.226M for the premiere.)
