One Chicago ratings report: Week of September 26
Did Chicago Wednesdays lead Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med to big ratings? Here’s the Sept. 26 edition of the One Chicago Ratings Report.
With the new One Chicago season officially underway, it’s time for another look at the franchise’s TV ratings with the One Chicago Ratings Report.
Not only were season premieres on tap, but NBC unveiled its new “Chicago Wednesdays” idea to air all three One Chicago shows on the same night. Did it pay off in the ratings?
You bet it did! One Chicago had three of the four most-watched shows on Sept. 26, helping NBC be the most-watched network on Wednesday night.
The Chicago Med season 4 premiere “Be My Better Half” brought in 7.68 million live viewers. That is a massive increase over last season’s finale, which pulled in 5.49 million.
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Not only did Chicago Med grow its audience by more than two million additional eyeballs, it was the third most popular show on Wednesday.
It does, however, have some work to do in the adults 18-49 demographic targeted by advertisers; its 1.2 share was only good enough for eighth place out of 14 series.
All three One Chicago programs drew that same 1.2 share, meaning that at least a portion of the fandom skews older—because there are plenty of viewers, but not as many in the 18-49 range as for some of its competitors.
(This may not be a bad thing. NCIS‘s demographic also skews older with a 1.4, and that show has been on for 16 seasons.)
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The top-rated One Chicago drama for the week was Chicago Fire, which scored 7.96 million live viewers en route to becoming the most popular show on Wednesday night!
That is way up from both parts of its previous season finale (5.44/6.34 million) and a breath of fresh air for a show that struggled in the TV ratings last season.
But hey, see what not being pre-empted twice and having comedies in front of you will do for a show? Welcome back, Chicago Fire!
Last but not least, Chicago PD was the only One Chicago show to stay in its previous time slot and it brought in 7.14 million viewers. Ironically, that made it the least-watched series of the three, for a show that was often the most-watched last season!
It was still better than the 6.29 million who tuned in for the Chicago PD season 5 finale, though. It just wasn’t as large a gain as Chicago Med and Chicago Fire.
One thing that’s important to note here is that season premieres are usually some of the highest rated episodes of any TV series. Especially with a crossover next week, fans likely won’t get to see how these numbers actually even out until October, once all the promotional fanfare has died down.
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But these TV ratings are certainly an encouraging start, and it seems like viewers are responding to having all three shows on the same night. One Chicago is back and, literally, it’s better than ever.