TV Ratings: ‘Abbott Elementary’ Season 2 Premiere Steady With Spring Finale on Heels of Emmy Wins

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Vought International has two new hires to boast about: Supes Firecracker and Sister Sage made their epic debut Monday in two first-look photos from “The Boys” Season 4 revealed by Amazon’s Prime Video. In the photos, which you can view at the bottom of this post, you’ll see Susan Heyward suit up as Sister Sage and Valorie Curry rocking her Firecracker costume. Both of the supersuits were designed by Laura Jean Shannon, “The Boys” costume designer who styled Jensen Ackles’ fan-favorite Soldier Boy look for Season 3. Fans will want to pick the details of these costumes apart as much as possible, because Amazon says that everything else about the Firecracker and Sister Sage characters “will be kept under wraps until the season airs.” While we don’t know when that will be just yet, we do know “The Boys” Season 4 is currently in production in Toronto — so stay tuned.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOLER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched through the Season 1 finale of Netflix’s “The Midnight Club.” “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Midnight Mass” mastermind Mike Flanagan turned his attention to a younger audience for his new Netflix series, “The Midnight Club,” which launched Friday. The new drama concludes its 10-episode first season with just a few answers, and many more questions about the fate of Ilonka (Iman Benson) and her fellow terminally ill teens at Brightcliffe Hospice, the Paragon cult’s mysterious connection to Dr. Stanton (Heather Langenkamp), the teens’ head caregiver and owner of the hospice, what actually happened to Julia Jayne/Shasta (Samantha Sloyan) and why those elderly ghosts are haunting Ilonka and Kevin (Igby Rigney).

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A new trailer for the third and final season of Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Picard” launched out of New York Comic Con Saturday, revealing new additions to the Patrick Stewart-led show’s cast — including the return of some iconic villains from “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Per Paramount+, Brent Spiner will be back on “Picard,” not as Data, but as a character the streamer describes as “named Lore” — evoking one of the most formidable villains in “Next Generation” history: Data’s evil twin brother, Lore, who was defeated and disassembled at the beginning of Season 7 of “Next Gen.” Additionally, Daniel Davis will return as Professor Moriarty from “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the Holodeck personification of a fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be an enemy for Sherlock Holmes. “Next Gen’s” Moriarty ended up becoming self aware.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The premiere of “Interview with the Vampire,” AMC’s first Anne Rice TV adaptation, and the eagerly anticipated return of the final season of “The Walking Dead” on Oct. 2 took streamer AMC+ to its highest two days of viewership and subscriber growth since the platform’s October 2020 launch, Variety has learned exclusively. Per AMC+, “The premiere of ‘Interview’ and the return of The Walking Dead’ drove AMC+ to the most successful two days in its history on Sunday and Monday and highest levels of series viewership and new subscriber acquisition ever.” According to the company, which currently has 10.8 million streaming subscribers across AMC+ and its other platforms, the series premiere of “Interview” now ranks as the No. 1 new series launch ever for AMC+, in both viewership and acquisition, “tripling the early activity of the previous record holder in these categories,” AMC’s freshman drama “Dark Winds.”

Jo’s black scrubs in the new season of Grey’s Anatomy have been a topic of discussion among fans in the weeks leading up to the season 19 premiere.

Saturday Night Live is back!

Bachelor in Paradise airs and CBS premieres The Real Love Boat, inspired by the iconic 1970s series. The unscripted dating show features some surprise guest stars from the scripted series, and the husband-and-wife team of Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell try to help a group of singles find love on the high seas. There’s nothing I love more than celebrating love in a gorgeous location, and this delivers. On the drama front (though BiP and TRLB can never be accused of not bringing the drama), Grey’s Anatomy returns for season 19 and The Good Doctor begins season 5, both on ABC.

#SNLPremiere pic.twitter.com/kH1cttLSts“Oh, good. Trump sketch,” Teller says as Peyton Manning. “Way to mix it up!” The skit made fun of the politically motivated direction the show has taken in past seasons, along with the recent exit of the show’s most beloved cast members.Veteran cast members Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney all made their final SNL appearances on the show’s 47th season finale in May.

SPOILER ALERT – Do not read ahead if you have not watched the new episode of The Masked Singer!

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Alex vs America” has been renewed for a third season at Food Network, Variety has learned exclusively. Production is set to begin this month on Season 3 of the primetime cable series, with new episodes to debut next year.  “Alex vs America” Season 2, which aired July 31-Sept. 11, averaged more than 9.1 million total viewers, up 44% from Season 1, and a 0.6 rating with adults ages 18 and up, an increase of 17%, according to Nielsen’s Live + 3 Day ratings. Per Food Network’s description for “Alex v. America”:

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Let the Games Begin,” the “9-1-1” Season 6 premiere. “9-1-1” returned in all its zany glory Monday on Fox with the premiere of its sixth season. During the episode, Oliver Stark’s Evan “Buck” Buckley tackled a blimp emergency with his team at the 118 — and yet that somehow wasn’t the biggest hurdle he had to overcome in the Season 6 premiere. Here, Variety breaks down the episode, titled “Let the Games Begin,” with Stark and how it lays the groundwork for Buck’s journey throughout the rest of “9-1-1” Season 6.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer TLC’s “Sister Wives” returned Sunday, drawing the show’s highest-rated season premiere in six years with the first episode of Season 11. Per Nielsen data, the reality show’s 11th season premiere averaged 2.2 million total viewers and a 1.42 rating among women ages 18-49, the advertiser-coveted demographic for the cable channel. That demo rating was the highest for a “Sister Wives” premiere in six years. Additionally, Episode 1 of Season 11 drew a 1.91 rating among women ages 25-54, another key market for the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TLC. According to TLC, on the “Sister Wives” Season 11 premiere night Sunday, “tweet volume saw triple digit growth compared to the previous premiere,” growing 192%). It was also the top primetime cable reality program on Facebook, No. 3 on Instagram and No. 4 on Twitter for social interactions.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer As a Sunday night series, the first episode of “House of the Dragon” was only available for streaming during the final three hours of Nielsen’s window for calculating its weekly SVOD ratings for Aug. 15-21. But in that brief period of time, the “Game of Thrones” prequel managed to be watched for 327 million minutes via HBO Max, according to the ratings currency company’s new rankings. “House of the Dragon” premiered Sunday, Aug. 21 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and was immediately available for streaming on HBO Max at that time. The Nielsen-provided figure here only counts streaming viewership, meaning anyone who watched “House of the Dragon” via HBO’s linear channel or any other platform is not included in the count.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Ina Garten is bringing four new companions over to chat and eat on “Be My Guest With Ina Garten” Season 2, including Faith Hill, Nathan Lane, Emily Blunt and chef Marcus Samuelsson, Variety has learned exclusively. The second season of the Barefoot Contessa’s Food Network and Discovery+ series will debut Oct. 9 at 12 p.m. ET. Per the “Be My Guest” second season description, “In the season premiere, Ina greets Faith Hill with frozen palomas and fresh guacamole and they become fast friends while talking about family, love and music. Faith’s daughter Gracie joins the party to help bake her family’s cola cake recipe and they then take a drive to Topping Rose House to celebrate their new friendship.  In the following episode, Ina serves Nathan Lane a taste of nostalgia with her Rum Raisin Rice Pudding recipe, and they discuss his childhood, personal life and show business career from the early years to his prolific roles on stage and screen.  She also gives cooking-novice Nathan a lesson in making Mussels with Saffron Cream. 

The brand new trailer for Abbott Elementary‘s upcoming season two is out!

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Nielsen data for the 2022 Emmys on NBC is in and its not looking good for TV’s biggest night. The awards show was down 25% from last year in total viewers and hit a new record low in ratings. On Monday, the Kenan Thompson-hosted 74th Emmy Awards had a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49, the lowest-ever key demo stat for the Emmys. The previous record low was set by the 2020 show, which aired on ABC, and settled for a 1.3 rating. The following year, the Emmys rebounded to a 1.9. Last night’s show drew 5.9 million total viewers compared with last year’s outing on CBS, which netted 7.9 million. That’s a new low and in stark contrast to the 2021 show, which marked a reversal in the Emmys’ steady decline in audience size. Last year’s Emmys saw a 16% gain of viewership over 2020’s historic drop-off of 12% with 6.37 million viewers.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The death of Queen Elizabeth II prompted the Claire Foy-led first season of “The Crown” to crack the Netflix Top 10 last week. Per Netflix, “HRH Queen Elizabeth II was in the hearts and minds of viewers” as Season 1 of the streamer’s Royal Family drama was watched for 17.6 million hours between Sept. 5-11. That put it in the No. 7 spot for English-language TV series. Meanwhile, the fifth season of “Cobra Kai” easily took the No. 1 slot on that list with 106 million hours viewed in the first three days post-Friday launch. In second place was limited series “Devil in Ohio,” which had 70.8 million hours viewed, followed by the first season of “The Imperfects” with 24.1 million.