CBS Wins Premiere Week as Sheriff Country Hits Series High

CBS ended the week of Oct. 4-10 as the most-watched broadcaster in the United States, averaging 4.4 million viewers in primetime, meaning the main evening hours when viewing peaks. The figures, reported by Variety, cover the first full week of the new season.

NBC finished second with 3.4 million primetime viewers. ABC averaged 2.6 million and Fox averaged 1.4 million across the same seven days.

CBS was up 9% on the 4.1 million it averaged in the same week last year. It was the only one of the four networks to grow year on year.

The push came on Friday. The Season 2 premiere of Sheriff Country, a spinoff, meaning a new series built around characters from an existing one, in this case Fire Country, drew just under 5.5 million viewers.

That is a series high for the show. It was up 25% on its Season 1 premiere last year.

The series stars Morena Baccarin as Sheriff Mickey Fox, policing the small town of Edgewater, according to CBS. The role puts a single sheriff at the centre of a tight-knit community programme.

CBS took eight of the 10 most-watched broadcast programmes for the week. 60 Minutes led the way with 10.2 million viewers, followed by Marshals with 8.2 million, Tracker with 7 million and NCIS with 6.4 million.

The only non-CBS entries in the top 10 were Dancing With the Stars on ABC with 6.4 million viewers and Chicago Med on NBC with 5.6 million viewers.

New CBS drama Cupertino also landed quickly, with 3.2 million viewers. That was enough to beat Law & Order in the same timeslot.

What makes this stand out is the spread. One Friday spinoff delivered a personal best, while older brands at the top of the schedule held firm. For fans, this means more of the same slots to find next week.