Law and Order SVU ratings report: Week of February 14, 2019
How did this week’s Law and Order SVU season 20 episode do in the TV ratings? Here’s the Feb. 14 edition of the SVU Ratings Report.
With the 20th season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season continuing, it’s time for another look at the Dick Wolf series’ TV ratings with the SVU Ratings Report.
This week’s episode had the caveat of airing on Valentine’s Day, when TV ratings as a whole can be generally soft—the logic being that instead of watching TV many people are out to dinner or other events with their loved ones.
But the holiday had no impact on the Special Victims Unit numbers. Thursday’s episode “Brothel” had 4.16 million live viewers—just a notch above last week’s 4.15 million (+10,000).
Though the total viewers stayed the same, the episode dropped from seventh place on Thursday night to ninth place overall.
It also preserved its 0.8 share within the adults 18-49 group, which kept it tied for eighth place out of 16 broadcast TV shows.
The only change of note was that the show’s direct competitor, SWAT on CBS, picked up viewers among the 18-49 demographic to break the previous tie with SVU; this week Special Victims Unit tied with the CBS sitcom Fam instead.
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The good news is that Valentine’s Day didn’t impact the ratings of this show the way that it did for other series (Grey’s Anatomy, for example, hit a series low on Thursday). The bad news is that the series seems like it’s settling in that low-4 range, and it deserves better than that.
We’ve said this before, but especially with Dick Wolf’s other franchise doing double these numbers on Wednesday one has to wonder if the expectations for SVU have changed. NBC has rightly made a big deal about how successful Chicago Wednesdays have been, so will they now expect more of this series, too? Or has it earned enough respect to not be under the same ratings pressure? We’ll find out in a few months as decisions get made for next season.
Next. See this month's Law & Order: SVU schedule. dark
For the latest SVU season 20 spoilers and news, plus more on all of Dick Wolf’s other series, follow the Dick Wolf category at One Chicago Center.