Thursday, December 26, 2024

Thursday Final Ratings: “SVU” Creams “Grey’s” by 1 Mil Viewers as Showrunner Prepares to Leave

Last night’s ratings were a boon for “Law & Order SVU” even as showrunner and exec producer Warren Leight announced his exit.

The episode scored 4.9 million viewers, making it among the top 3 standalone episodes of the entire 2021-22 season.

On top of that, “SVU” had 1 million more viewers than “Grey’s Anatomy” on NBC at the same time. With CBS sitcoms in reruns, “SVU” was the highest rated network show by far.

So why is Leight leaving? Good question. None of this makes sense.

And why is “Grey’s” doing so badly? Has the audience finally tired of the same old stuff and the killing off of fan favorites? Last night’s show wasn’t their worst rated of the season, but close to it. The trend is down, down, down. They’ve lost around 800,000 viewers this season.

Leight created an online community of fans for “SVU.” These fans are really dedicated to the show, and know everything. It’s kind of amazing that “SVU” has maintained and increased its viewership apart from the Benson-Stabler soap opera (of which I disapprove). On its own, without Chris Meloni’s DisOrganized Crime, “SVU” rocks.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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