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‘The Good Doctor’ Is Now Bigger Than ‘NCIS’ and ‘This Is Us,’ By a Hair — Ratings Watch

The Freddie Highmore medical drama is doing pretty, pretty good. Also: Live+3 TV ratings charts for the week ending Oct. 15, 2017.
THE GOOD DOCTOR - "Catch of the Day" (ABC/Eike Schroter)FREDDIE HIGHMORE
"The Good Doctor"
ABC

The Nielsen “Doctor” is in. After three weeks of the new season, the ABC drama “The Good Doctor” appears to be a bonafide hit for the network.

According to the latest Nielsen data covering three days’ worth of time-shifting (including DVR and video on demand viewing), “The Good Doctor” is averaging 16.42 million viewers — making it not just TV’s most-watched new drama, but TV’s most-watched drama, period. That’s because after three weeks, “The Good Doctor” is just a smidge above CBS’ perennial powerhouse “NCIS” (16.35 million) and NBC’s emotional juggernaut “This Is Us” (16.19 million).

The show, starring Freddie Highmore as a high-functioning autistic physician, is also the fall’s No. 1 freshman drama and top-rated 10 p.m. series among Adults 18-49 (3.7 rating).

David Shore executive produces “The Good Doctor,” which is based on a South Korean format, and also stars Antonia Thomas, Nicholas Gonzalez, Chuku Modu, Beau Garrett, Hill Harper, Richard Schiff, and Tamlyn Tomita as Allegra Aoki. The series’ uplifting concept, just like last year’s breakout “This Is Us,” has been credited for some of its success. With the darkness of real-life headlines dominating public thought, “The Good Doctor” provides a bit of an escape for viewers (and also fits well with lead-in “Dancing with the Stars”).

Meanwhile, the third week of the new season (Oct. 9-15) saw the usual solid numbers for baseball playoffs and weekly NFL games. “The Big Bang Theory” was once again the leader with all viewers (16.8 million).

Here are this week’s rankers:

Adults 18-49 ranker, week ending Oct. 15, 2017:

RANK

SHOW & NETWORK

LIVE+3
DAYS
DVR/VOD

RATING

WATCHED
LIVE/
SAME
DAY

RATING

1

NFL Sunday Night Football: Giants vs. Broncos NBC 

5.6

5.6

2

NFL Thursday Night Football: Eagles vs. Panthers CBS/NFL

4.6

4.6

3

This Is Us NBC

 4.3

2.8

4

The Big Bang Theory CBS

4.1

2.9

5

NFL Monday Night Football: Vikings vs. Bears ESPN

3.8

3.7

6

The Good Doctor ABC

3.6

2.0

7

Grey’s Anatomy ABC  

3.2

2.1

8

The Voice (Monday) NBC

Will & Grace NBC

2.9

2.9

2.4

1.8

10

The Voice (Tuesday) NBC

2.8

2.4

11

Empire Fox

Modern Family ABC

2.7

2.7

2.0

1.8

13

60 Minutes CBS

2.3

2.3

14

Survivor CBS

MLB AL Division Series: Yankees vs. Indians (Oct. 11) FS1

2.2

2.2

1.7

2.2

16

The Gifted Fox

Scandal ABC

The Goldbergs ABC

American Housewife ABC

Chicago PD NBC

MLB NL Division Series: Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks (Oct. 12) TBS

MLB NLCS: Dodgers vs. Cubs (Oct. 15) TBS

2.0

2.0

2.0

2.0

2.0

2.0

2.0

1.2

1.2

1.5

1.4

1.2

2.0

1.9

23

The Orville Fox

Star Fox

The Middle ABC

NCIS CBS

Criminal Minds CBS

American Horror Story: Cult FX

Law & Order: SVU NBC

Chicago Fire NBC

1.9

1.9

1.9

1.9

1.9

1.9

1.9

1.9

1.0

1.5

1.4

1.4

1.1

1.0

1.2

1.1

Adults 18-49; ratings points. Source: Nielsen Media Research

Total viewers ranker, week ending Oct. 15, 2017:

RANK

SHOW & NETWORK

LIVE+3
DAYS
DVR/VOD

WATCHED
LIVE/
SAME
DAY

1

The Big Bang Theory CBS

16.82

13.14

2

NCIS CBS

16.40

13.61

3

The Good Doctor ABC

 16.31

10.69

4

NFL Sunday Night Football: Giants vs. Broncos NBC

16.22

16.16

5

This Is Us NBC

 15.33

11.02

6

NFL Thursday Night Football: Eagles vs. Panthers CBS/NFL

14.70

14.60

7

Bull CBS

13.92

11.26

8

60 Minutes CBS

13.86

13.34

9

The Voice (Monday) NBC

12.71

10.91

10

The Voice (Tuesday) NBC

12.62

11.09 

11

Blue Bloods CBS

12.47

8.98

12

NCIS: New Orleans CBS

11.94

9.52

13

Hawai’i Five-0 CBS

10.90

8.52

 14

NCIS: Los Angeles CBS 

10.87

8.65

15

Grey’s Anatomy ABC

10.73

8.08

16

Dancing with the Stars ABC

10.69

9.25

17

Seal Team CBS

10.44

8.02

18

NFL Monday Night Football: Vikings vs. Bears ESPN

10.40

10.36

19

Survivor CBS

9.71

8.03

20

Will & Grace NBC

9.70

6.16

21

Wisdom of the Crowd CBS

9.28

8.04

22

Chicago Fire NBC

9.27

6.16

23

Chicago PD NBC 

9.25

6.07

24

Madam Secretary CBS 

8.94

6.36

25

Criminal Minds CBS 

8.82

5.87

Total viewers; in millions. Source: Nielsen Media Research

 

Here is this week’s Xfinity On Demand ranker:

Top 20 TV Series, Oct. 9-15, 2017:

RANK

SHOW

NETWORK

1

This Is Us

NBC

2

Game of Thrones

HBO

3

The Good Doctor 

 ABC

4

Will & Grace

NBC

5

American Horror Story: Cult

 FX

6

Outlander

Starz

7

Curb Your Enthusiasm

 HBO

8

Rick and Morty

Adult Swim

9

The Big Bang Theory

CBS

10

The Simpsons

Fox/FXX

11

Ray Donovan

Showtime

12

The Voice

NBC

13

Empire

Fox

14

The Gifted

Fox

15

Grey’s Anatomy

ABC

16

The Orville

Fox

17

 Designated Survivor

ABC

18

The Deuce

HBO

19

Teen Mom 2

MTV

20

Chrisley Knows Best

USA

 

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