Jennifer Lopez dominated television on Thursday night. In addition to being a judge on American Idol, she’s also the star of NBC’s new cop drama Shades of Blue, which got some great numbers for NBC.
Shades of Blue earned 8.57 million viewers and a 1.8 18-49 rating, according to overnight Nielsen numbers (posted at TVByTheNumbers). It actually built on The Blacklist’s 7.45 million total viewers and 1.6 demo rating. Heroes Reborn at 8 p.m. had a measly 3.73 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 rating.
Shades, which also stars Ray Liotta, gave NBC its first in-season win over its rival broadcast networks in the 10 p.m. Thursday slot since March 2010, notes Variety. It was the best 18-49 rating for NBC in that slot since the now-cancelled Awake debuted with a 2.0 in March 2012. It’s the biggest total viewer number since an episode of Southland had 9.9 million viewers in April 2009.
In 2015, NBC tried to debut Allegiance and The Player at 10 p.m. Thursdays, but both shows failed. Allegiance started with just a 1.1 rating in February, while The Player had a 1.2 in September.
Lopez’s American Idol drew 9.99 million viewers and a 2.7 18-49 rating over its two hours.
Of course, the most watched show of the night was the new episode of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, which had 15.73 million viewers and a 3.8 18-49 rating.