CBS Premiere Record: 7.73M viewers for ‘Matlock,’ CBS’s premiere of the show.
Kathy Bates, we salute you! Matlock, the return of the Oscar-winning veteran to broadcast television with CBS, delivered Live+Same Day viewing numbers that we seldom see any more. The “sneak peek” premiere of Jennie Uraman’s reimagining of Andy Griffin’s classic, with Bates playing the eponymous lawyer, averaged 7.73 millions viewers in Sunday’s time-adjusted Fast National L+SD ratings.
This was CBS’ biggest audience for a non post-Super Bowl series debut in five and half years. The Code debuted on April 9, 2019, after NCIS.
Matlock, while benefiting from the Steelers-Chargers “halo” effect (and a free promotion through Chargers’ star Scott Matlock’s jersey), did not follow the game immediately. It was aired after its lead-out newsmagazine 60 Minutes.
60 Minutes numbers are not time-adjusted (CBS primetime in some East Coast markets was delayed), but preliminary estimates indicate that Matlock surpassed its 60 Minutes lead by approximately 1 million viewers. This is another impressive feat for Matlock, whose debut was moved to this fall due to the Hollywood strike.
Matlock is currently rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans have also praised the CBS Studios series, with many posting positive and even shocked reactions on social media. Urman explained in an interview with Deadline how the surprise twist of episode one was received.
This is a great validation for CBS Studios and Urman who backed Urman’s vision of a series featuring an older protagonist by casting Bates, 70 or so years old as the lead character.
The Matlock sneak preview premiere was the most watched show in Canada on Sunday, with over 1.2 million viewers tuning in.
Matlock’s first episode is streaming now on Paramount+, with CBS encore broadcasts scheduled for Oct. 8, and 10. On October 17, the series will begin airing its original episodes in its usual Thursday 9 PM slot.
