Even if you don’t watch Empire, you know it returned last night, because it’s literally the only thing everyone was talking about on Twitter. “The Devils Are Here,” directed by Sean Penn’s least favorite person, inspired Bob’s Burgers memes and, oh yeah, Chris Rock played a cannibal. It was predictably insane and compulsively watchable, and boy did a whole lot of people watch. Variety reports that it “averaged a 6.5 rating/20 share in adults 18-49 and 16.0 million viewers overall,” the second highest rating in the show’s history. Yet that’s still a “disappointment.”
It snapped the record of every episode having a higher rating than the one before it.
1. “Pilot,” 9.90 million
2. “The Outspoken King,” 10.32
3. “The Devil Quotes Scripture,” 11.07
4. “False Imposition,” 11.36
5. “Dangerous Bonds,” 11.47
6. “Out, Damned Spot,” 11.96
7. “Our Dancing Days,” 13.02
8. “The Lyon’s Roar,” 13.90
9. “Unto the Breach,” 14.33
10. “Sins of the Father,” 14.90
11. “Die But Once,” 15.82
12. “Who I Am,” 17.62
13. “The Devils Are Here,” 16.0
That’s still a ridiculous number. Most shows would kill for 16 million viewers — literally; NBC needs Heroes Reborn to be a hit — but it’s just another day at the office for Empire, broadcast’s Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead. Unlike the other networks, Fox goes to local programming at 10 p.m. EST, but it may want to make an exception for the post-Empire timeslot. Maybe they can acquire Madman of the People, which got Seinfeld‘s sloppy seconds, from NBC?
(Via Variety)
