It’s Early, But ‘Murder’ and ‘Blackish’ Are Delivering for ABC

For ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co.DIS +0.76%, the show’s strong start indicates that the strategy to make Thursday Shonda Rhimes night may pay off. Besides “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder,” Thursday is also home to Rhimes’ first hit, “Grey’s Anatomy.” Overall, ABC averaged 12 million viewers, second only toCBS CBS +1.34%’s “Thursday Night Football.”

Thursday wasn’t the only good news day for ABC. Its new sitcom “Blackish” about a black suburban family whose patriarch fears his kids are losing touch with their roots, premiered with more than 11 million viewers on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. As important, it retained most of the audience from its lead-in, the hit comedy “Modern Family.”

ABC’s other potential bright spot is the medical drama “Forever,” which premiered on Monday at 10 p.m. and averaged 8.6 million viewers and almost seven million viewers on Tuesday at 10 p.m., which will be its regular home. On Tuesday it added almost one million viewers from its lead-in, the sophomore Marvel show “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Given that more viewers are recording shows and watching them later or catching them on video-on-demand, the early numbers do not carry quite the same weight as in previous years. However, they still provide a look at what shows have potential and which ones are potential turkeys.

ABC is betting on its new crop of shows to help the network rebound after the disappointments of last season, when it finished down in both total viewers and the key demographic of 18 to 49-year-olds. ABC only brought back three of the 13 new shows it launched last year.

CBS Corp. is off to a solid start this season. On Monday,  its hit comedy “The Big Bang Theory” averaged over 18 million viewers and the new dramas “Scorpion” had almost 14 million viewers. Sunday’s drama “Madame Secretary” averaged about 15 million viewers.

But CBS’s biggest bet for the fall – Thursday Night Football – has yet to yield the huge numbers that the network was likely expecting as all three of the games it has aired have been clunkers. Still, the games have boosted CBS’s ratings on Thursday and are averaging 16.1 million viewers.

Comcast CMCSA +0.56%’s NBC, which came into the fall with the most momentum, has only premiered one new show – “The Mysteries of Laura” – a police drama starring Debra Messing. It has averaged over ten million viewers, but its median age is 60, which won’t excite advertisers. NBC’s returning hit drama, “The Blacklist,” is still strong, averaging 12.3 million viewers.

At Fox the reality show “Utopia” has tanked and its new drama “Red Band Society” about sick kids, is close to needing life support. The network’s big bet for the fall, the Batman prequel “Gotham,” ad a very solid start, but everything else has been a disappointment so far.