'It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' Courtesy Everett Collection
The string of animated holiday specials kicks off as one of Tuesday's leaders — even with increased MLB competition.
In news that can't dampen its big-screen prospects next month, the annual parade of Peanuts holiday specials kicked off on a strong note on Tuesday night. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Charles M. Schulz's Halloween-centric cartoon was steady with last year's showing, averaging a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49 and 6 million viewers on ABC.
The only series to do better in the key demo on Tuesday night were NCIS, averaging a steady 2.1 rating among adults 18-49 on CBS, and NBC's The Voice (2.6 adults). The Charlie Brown specials remain a formidable player for ABC each year, with outings at Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The animated franchise will face a new test come Nov. 6, when the Peanuts Movie bows in U.S. theaters.
Stability elsewhere on the broadcast lineup was against another strong showing from the NLCS Championship Series on TBS. The game brought big overnights, including a 25.1 overnight rating for households in the Chicago market and a 19.0 rating in New York. Across the U.S., the game averaged a 7 rating and a 12 share.
Charlie Brown was joined on ABC by Toy Story of Terror (1.6 adults) and steady episode of Agents of SHIELD (1.4 adults). NBC, the night's leader in the key demo, also aired a flat episode of Best Time Ever (1.2 adults) and a steady Chicago Fire (1.7 adults).
The rest of CBS' lineup also held with last week, with both NCIS: New Orleans (1.6 adults) and Limitless (1.3 adults) steady.
Ahead of a World Series-induced hiatus, Fox's Tuesday trio was unchanged from last week's episodes, with both Grandfathered and Scream Queens averaging a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49 and The Grinder nabbing a 0.9 rating. (Grandfathered was also the most-watched of the three, averaging 3.2 million live-plus-same day viewers.)
And, in keeping with the night's trend of little movement, the CW duo of The Flash (1.4 adults) and iZombie (0.5 adults) were dead even with last week.
TV Ratings
