Fox’s reboot of The X-Files attracted some 13.5 million viewers and a 5.1 rating among primetime’s key demographic of adults 18-49, according to Nielsen Media Research’s preliminary ratings.
Those numbers mean the show definitely took advantage of the huge audience that was watching the NFC Championship blowout, in which the Carolina Panthers skunked the Arizona Cardinals 49-15. The X-Files premiered at 10:24 pm ET. Whether it could have taken even greater advantage of that audience will never be known, but the show will have far less of a lead-in on Monday night when it moves into its regular time slot of 8 p.m. ET/PT, leading in to new series Lucifer at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
The X-Files, starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents seeking answers to mostly unanswerable questions, is one of the most popular programs in Fox’s history, averaging nearly 20 million viewers per episode in its fourth season, saysVariety.
Meanwhile, Variety’s Brian Lowry wrote that “Fox fumbled the handoff,” taking too long to close out its post-game coverage and flip over to The X-Files.
“The real shock … was that Fox didn’t do anything special, either during the early part of the game or within its coverage, to promote the premiere. There were no awkward interviews with the talent, no taped pieces, not even shots of David Duchovny or Gillian Anderson sitting in the crowd looking bored,” wrote Lowry.
Brief Take: Network schedules don’t matter like they used to, but there’s still plenty of power in a strong lead-in.
Read more: Variety, The Wrap
[Image courtesy of Fox via Variety.]
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