“Arrow” Returns to Strong Ratings

It will be weeks before any clear trends emerge on how much of a delay viewers are taking before watching Empire, after the freshman season’s runaway live-viewing success, or if the show did lose anyone. On the bright side, the CW’s “Arrow” opened its fourth season up from past year. Ratings for both programs will be released later today by Nielsen.

The network won the night in 18-49 and total viewers. It drew more young adults than the night’s next two highest-rated shows on the competition combined (ABC’s “Modern Family” and “The Goldbergs“). (It’s likely to round up in the nationals, though, as it now stands at 1.74). It was down only slightly from the season three premiere in total viewers but up in the key demo, as last season’s premiere got a 1.0/3 and 2.8 million viewers.

After the alarming 25% Week 2 drop for Black-ish (1.9), the ABC comedy regained a few ground last night, up a tenth (6%) from last Wednesday.

TVLine notes the performance in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic is the best for an “Arrow” premiere since the series launched on The CW in 2012 (a 1.3 rating). “Arrow” was even with past year in adults 18-34 and down a bit in total viewers.

CBS was third in the demo with Survivor down 17 percent to a series low 2.0 and 8.9 million viewers. “Rosewood” turned in a 1.7/6 and 5.7 million viewers at 8 p.m, down from a 1.9/7 and 6.2 million last week.

– FOX led into “Empire” with “Rosewood” (1.7 with 5.686 million this week versus a 2.0 with 6.236 million last week).

The fourth season premiere of “Arrow” on The CW performed well, pulling in a 1.1/4 and 2.6 million viewers.