QUANTICO - Page 6

The series premiere of the FBI drama "Quantico" scored the best ratings of Sunday night for ABC Network - 7.1 million total viewers and a 1.9 demo rating among adults 18-49 - up 50 per cent from the network's "Revenge" (5.3 mil/1.4) that came in at the same hour last year. The ratings of the Priyanka Chopra-led show also built on "Blood & Oil" (9 p.m.) by 36 per cent.

Another great sign is that "Quantico" ratings remained steady in the 10:30 p.m. half-hour.

This has been the best rating for a show in this time slot for ABC since May 2012 (Desperate Housewives season finale), and the network must be extremely thrilled to see that their gamble of slotting "Quantico" for Sunday night has indeed paid off.

ABC's "Once Upon a Time" (1.8 rating/5 share in adults 18-49, 5.9 million viewers overall) was considerably softer than last year in opening its season, losing nearly half of its young-adult audience from last year's premiere.

The Don Johnson-Chace Crawford soap "Blood & Oil" scored 1.4/4 in 18-49, 6.3 million viewers overall, which is down 0.8 from last year's "Resurrection" season premiere in the same time slot. Though not the best, it isn't necessarily a terrible start.

But "Quantico" surely was a winner of Sunday night, scoring better than even the CBS' CSI finale (1.8 rating among adults 18-49).

Obviously, this is NBC's Sunday Night Football continued to top the ratings as the Lions-Broncos game got a 13.8 rating.

Priyanka Chopra showed off her Bollywood/international superstar credentials with a solid premiere for her first American series, ABC dramaQuantico. Against Sunday Night Football, the thriller opened with a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49 to rank as the highest rated scripted telecast on Sunday night. It also built onto its lead-in, the debut of Blood & Oil (1.4), by an impressive +36%, further underlining Chopra's drawing power, on which ABC built its promo campaign for the show. Quantico was up +46% from Revenges season premiere in the 10 PM hour last fall despite a far weaker lead-in (1.4 vs. 2.2 last year).

Quantico helped end a mostly disappointing night for ABC on a positive note. Sunday 8 PM anchor Once Upon A Time (1.8) logged its lowest rated premiere in Live+same day, down -49% from last fall. The fairytale drama is heavily DVR-ed, so it will gain some ground in shifted viewing but won't be able to close the big ratings gap with last season's premiere, which had a stronger led-in from a Once special (1.5 vs. 0.7 for last night's Once special).

Following the NFL overrun-boosted season premiere of 60 Minutes(2.9), the two-hour series finale ofCSI (1.8) was up +29% from its season premiere last fall. In total viewers, CSI drew 12.1 million viewers, its largest audience in almost four years, since January 2012, and was the most watched scripted program last night.

Fox's comedy lineup was down across the board from last year when Fox's Premiere Sunday followed a football overrun and included the highly-rated Family Guy-Simpsons cross-over. Bob's Burgers (1.3) was down -13%, The Simpsons (1.5) down -25%, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.5) down -12% and Family Guy (1.5) down -21%. Last Man on Earth (1.4) was down -39% from its midseason series premiere and on par with its May finale.

NBC dominated Premiere Sunday with the Denver Broncos' win over the Detroit Lions 24-12. SNF pulled in 13.8/23 rating in metered markets last night. While down -15% from the Green Bay Packers win over the Seattle Seahawks on September 20, Week 3 of the 2015-16 season on SNF is up +12% from the comparable game last season. Last week's SNF had a final audience of 26.4 million, the best Week 2, the NFL's most watched Week 2 since 1991.

ABC's Quantico premiered on Sunday to 7.1 million total viewers and a 1.9 demo rating, up sharply from what Revenge did in the time slot a year ago (5.3 mil/1.4) and also besting that sudser's two-hour series finale (4.8 mil/1.3).

Quantico delivered ABC's best numbers in Sunday's 10 o'clock slot since May 2012 (second hour of Desperate Housewives series finale) and September 2012 (666 Park Avenues debut), respectively. TVLine readers gave the Priyanka Chopra-fronted FBI drama an average grade of "B+."

Opening ABC's night, Once Upon a Time (5.9 mil/1.8, average grade "A-") plunged 38 and 49 percent from its previous premiere but matched its May finale. At 9 o'clock, Blood & Oil debuted to 6.3 mil/1.4 (and a "B-" grade), down 17 and 36 percent from Resurrections year-ago premiere.