Empire grew yet again on Wednesday night, rising three-tenths of a point from last week's episode to a new high: a 4.6 rating among adults 18-49.
Fox's golden drama also inched up again in total viewers, hitting 11.5 million in live-plus-same day. And moving into the Hollywood rounds of its pre-taped episodes, American Idol held steady with a 3.0 adults rating.
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Promising midseason launch news seems rare, but ABC's Wednesday samplings of Fresh Off the Boat proved fruitful. Airing at 8:30 and 9:30 p.m., two new episodes of the comedy fetched respective 2.5 and 2.4 ratings in the key demo. The show fared especially well in its first slot, growing three-tenths of a point from its Middle lead-in (2.2 adults). The show was down half of a point from Modern Family (3.4 adults) but up from Black-ish's recent performances in the time slot. Fresh Off the Boat now faces the unfortunate challenge of moving to is regular Tuesday time slot — which hasn't been particularly kind on comedy.
Drama Nashville held in its return, averaging a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49.
The Mentalist (1.2 adults), Criminal Minds (2.0 adults) and Stalker (1.5 adults) were all steady on CBS. And the trend carried over to NBC procedurals. NBC had new episodes of The Mysteries of Laura (1.0 adults), Law & Order: SVU (1.4 adults) and Chicago P.D. (1.6 adults) — all steady with their most recent outings.
