If you want to know what the biggest hits of the new fall season are, ABC and FOX have given you the answers. FOX has given a full-season order to Gotham, with six additional episodes, while ABC has picked up both Black-ish and How to Get Away with Murder for more episodes.
Gotham and Black-ish will both run for full 22-episode seasons while How to Get Away with Murder was picked up for 15 total episodes due to star Viola Davis’ film schedule.
The pick-ups are hardly any surprise given that all three shows had huge ratings with their premieres, even moreso after the first week’s DVR numbers came in.
Gotham premieres with 8.3 million viewers for FOX, but the seven-day DVR total increased that by nearly 6 million. And in the coveted 18-49 demographic, Gotham’s premiere had the largest growth on all of TV for the premiere week, up from a 3.3 to a 6.0.
How to Get Away with Murder had similar impressive growth. It premiered huge with 14.1 million viewers, but gained 7 million with the DVR ratings after one week, giving it the biggest boost out of any show on TV. In fact, both Gotham and How to Get Away with Murder were both among the Top 4 shows from premiere week in terms of total audience growth and 18-49 growth for the seven-day DVR numbers, alongside such massive hits as The Big Bang Theory and The Blacklist.
Black-ish, meanwhile, is the fall’s top comedy, launching with 10.8 million viewers, getting a 3.7 million viewer boost from DVR numbers and going up nearly 50 percent in the 18-49 demographic.
The full season pickup makes Gotham one of the rare 22-episode dramas for FOX, with Bones as the only other current show that doesn’t fit the half-season model of dramas like Sleepy Hollow and The Following. For ABC, Black-ish gives the network a solid Wednesday night comedy block after experimenting with multiple new shows over the past few years. And How to Get Away with Murder is yet another hit for uber-producer Shonda Rhimes, who also has Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, giving her a monopoly on the network’s Thursday nights.
Gotham airs Mondays at 8pm on FOX. Black-ish airs Wednesdays at 9:30pm on ABC. How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays at 10pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
