How to Get Away With Murder Crushes the Ratings Race

ABC

How to Get Away With Murder? More like how to get away with great ratings!

The series premiere of How to Get Away With Murder pulled in more than 14 million viewers and nailed a 3.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Yes, 14 million viewers tuned in to see Viola Davis star in the latest Shondaland series from Peter Nowalk and executive producers Shonda Rhimes andBetsy Beers. But here's the kicker: How to Get Away With Murder added viewers from its lead-in Scandal.

MORE: Why there will be lots of gay sex on How to Get Away With Murder

The season four premiere of Scandal had about 12 million viewers and also a 3.8 rating in the fast nationals from Nielsen. Grey's Anatomy returned for its eleventh season in a new timeslot, 8 p.m., and had 9.8 million viewers and a 3.0 rating.

If you had any doubt as to why ABC gave Rhimes her own night, that should be gone now.

How to Get Away With Murder isn't this season's highest-rated show, though. That distinction goes to CBS' NCIS: New Orleans, which pulled in more than 17 million viewers. Other new shows cracking the 14 million mark include Scorpion and Madam Secretary, also on CBS. How to Get Away With Murder also stars Alfred Enoch, Billy Brown, Jack Falahee, Katie Findlay, Aja Naomi King, Charlie Weber, Matt McGorry,Liza Weil, Tom Verica and Karla Souza.

Over on CBS, the Thursday Night Football Kickoff had 8.5 million viewers and a 2.7 rating at 8 p.m. The game had 12.5 million viewers and a 4.5 rating starting at 8:30. Fox's Bones premiere had 6.2 million viewers and a 1.6. NBC's two-hour The Biggest Loser had 4.5 million viewers and a 1.3 rating. At 10 p.m., the season premiere of NBC'sParenthood had 4.3 million viewers and a 1.4 rating.

Now the real test for next week: How many will return next week to see Davis' Annalise Keating teach her second class?