Spotted Ratings, Premiere Wednesday 9/23/15

WHAT MATTERS:

• FINALS UPDATE: Survivor (2.5), Modern Family (3.2), SVU (1.8) and Empire (6.7) all adjusted up, with Empire up two tenths from the early prelims. Nashville (1.2) was down.

• After a couple bitterly disappointing nights to begin 2015-16, Fox rebounded big-time on Premiere Wednesday with the return of Empire (6.5), which preliminarily tied the full two-hour rating that ended season one in March. (Though it technically will not go down as a series high, since Fox split the two episodes in finals and Empire had a 6.9 for the 9:00 hour.)
• It was able to help 8/7c newbie Rosewood (2.4) to a rock-solid premiere number. Rosewood grew huge at the half (2.1 -> 2.7) and had exclusive Empire previews during the episode, so it may be artificial on some level, but it's probably about as good as Fox could've asked for here. 

• The rest of premiere Wednesday was marked by a slew of familiar faces, and almost everything held up rather decently in the face of massive Fox competition. On ABC, The Middle (2.1) and The Goldbergs (2.4) each matched last year's premieres, while there were significant drops for Empire opponents Modern Family (3.1) and Black-ish (2.4). Still, the first three ABC comedies all hit their best ratings since early March. Black-ish had a 2.4 in April but other than that, it was that series' best rating since November! And Nashville (1.3) was just a tenth below last year.

• CBS' Survivor premiere (2.5/2.4/2.4) and Big Brother finale (2.3/2.1/2.1) were each down in the teens from their 90-minute episodes on the year-ago evening.

• And on NBC, The Mysteries of Laura (1.2) had a rather decent return by its low standards, posting its best rating since before daylight saving time, while Law and Order: SVU (1.7) was down 23% from the year-ago premiere but clearly got hurt big by Empire (as it surged to 1.9/2.0 in the 10:00 hour).

• The big four were up 29% vs. last year's opening Wednesday. This is, of course, mostly about Fox, but none of the other networks individually were down even 20% year-to-year.

FULL TABLE (FINALS):

	Ratings		Year-to-Year
	Viewers	A18-49	y2y	Ty2y
The Middle	8.21	2.1	+0%	+0%
The Goldbergs	7.62	2.4	+0%	+0%
Modern Family	9.46	3.2	-16%	-16%
Black-ish	7.30	2.4	-27%	-27%
Nashville	4.91	1.2	-14%	-17%
			ABC:	-14%
Survivor	9.70	2.5	-11%	-9%
Big Brother Wed	6.54	2.2	-15%	-14%
			CBS:	-11%
The Mysteries of Laura	7.11	1.2	-40%	-20%
Law and Order: SVU	8.27	1.8	-18%	-11%
			NBC:	-14%
Rosewood	7.54	2.4	n/a	+85%
Empire	16.18	6.7	+76%	+538%
			Fox:	+287%
America's Next Top Model	1.35	0.4	+33%	-20%
A Wicked Offer	0.50	0.2	n/a	-50%
			CW:	-33%
			Big4:	+31%
			Big5:	+27%

The full table can be sorted by clicking any of the category names at the top. Hover over 'y2y' and 'Ty2y' numbers for more information on the previous episode being compared.