Primetime Ratings: Soft Debuts for NBC Comedies, Fox s Gracepoint

NBC's scaled-back Thursday comedy block got off to a rough start on Thursday, with freshman sitcoms Bad Judge and A to Z combining for just a 1.3 rating with adults 18-49 during the 9 p.m. hour, according to Nielsen overnight numbers.

Bad Judge, which drew a 1.3, did manage to hold all of its lead in from The Biggest Loser, which remained even for the third straight week. A to Z lost a tenth to a 1.2 at 9:30 p.m. Both NBC comedies fell below what Sean Saves the World (9 p.m.) and The Michael J. Fox Show (9:30 p.m.) drew in that time period last year.

At 10 p.m., Parenthood dipped a tenth from last week's premiere to a 1.3, as NBC tied with Fox for third on the night with a 1.3 rating/4 share.

Fox's event series Gracepoint, a remake of British series Broadchurch, got off to a soft start as well, drawing a 1.2 rating at 9 p.m. and less than 5 million total viewers. The 1.2 rating was down 40% from what Glee drew for its premiere in that time slot last year. At 8 p.m., Bones dipped a tenth to a 1.5.

ABC's second all-Shonda Rhimes Thursday night held up well from last week's premieres. Freshman How to Get Away With Murder dipped 18% to a 3.2 at 10 p.m., holding nearly all of its lead in from Scandal - which itself was down 15% to a 3.3 rating - and building on it among total viewers (11.8 million compared to Scandals 10.4 million). At 8 p.m., Grey's Anatomy was down 13% to a 2.6. ABC finished in second with a 3.0/9.

CBS led the night with Thursday Night Football, which drew a 10.4 household rating in the metered-markets, down 7% from last week. In the demo, CBS had a 4.2/13 in primetime.

The CW kicked off its fall season on Thursday with the return of The Vampire Diaries and Reign. Vampire Diaries drew a 0.9 rating, which was off of last year's debut 25% and the show's lowest in its six seasons, while Reign's 0.4 was half of its series premiere (0.8) but on par with where it left off last season. In the net's targeted adults 18-34 demo, Vampire Diaries was down by the same amount to a 1.0 rating, while Reign drew a 0.3, down from both last year's premiere (0.7) and its finale (0.4). The CW finished with an overall 0.6/2.

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