Howard Gordon’s return to Fox has proved to be fruitful for the network. The premiere episode of his latest crime drama Accused has managed the highest-rated and most-watched debut across broadcast and cable in the last three years.
The crime anthology series premiered Sunday night to a 2.0 rating among the advertiser-friendly 18-49 demographic as well as 8.4M viewers, according to early live+same-day Nielsen data.
It’s worth noting that the episode had a lead in from the Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers matchup. That’s always bound to boost ratings, but these debut numbers are pretty impressive even with an NFL lead-in.
For reference, Fox’s other new drama series Alert: Missing Persons Unit also had an NFL lead-in for its premiere episode earlier this month and managed 3.8M live + same-day viewers and a 0.8 demo rating.
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