Welcome to the second edition of New Show Power Rankings. This column ranks the new broadcast scripted series from the 2024-25 TV season by perceived strength and linear ratings. As the mid-season edition, these power rankings also take into account multi-platform ratings where available. A show’s renewal and cancelation chances are disregarded for the purposes of this column. These rankings include co-productions, but not fully imported series. Let us know what you think in the comments!
1. Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage [Preseason: #6]Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage is a clear success for CBS, seamlessly taking over for Young Sheldon in the Thursdays at 8 pm time slot and becoming one of their highest-rated shows in both linear and multi-platform viewing. Before it premiered, there was a chance this would be rejected by viewers, possibly even putting a stain on the legacy of Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory. Instead, CBS has found themselves a spinoff-of-a-spinoff that could very well one day spawn a spinoff of its own.
2. Matlock [Preseason: #5]
Another new series that proved itself early on is Matlock. CBS’s reimagined reboot of the classic legal drama averages more viewers in Live + Same Day viewing than every broadcast program except 60 Minutes and Tracker, and also holds strong as the 6th-highest-rated drama on broadcast in the key Adults 18-49 demo. With 35-day multi-platform viewing taken into account, the first four episodes are averaging nearly 17 million viewers. Matlock ran the risk of underperforming, like the reboot of Murphy Brown did in the same hour a few years ago. Instead, it has lived up to its potential. Assuming it stays on its current trajectory, Matlock will finish the season ranked in line with the peak seasons of the original series.
3. Shifting Gears [Preseason: #4]
Whereas Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage and Matlock are clear successes of the 2024-25 freshmen class, there are a few other series that aren’t performing quite as well as they could have. This leads to the yet-to-premiere Shifting Gears moving up a spot to #3. ABC clearly wants their latest Tim Allen-led multi-cam to work, scheduling it Wednesdays at 8 pm paired up with the increasingly lucrative local affiliate lead-in. That in no way guarantees Shifting Gears will land with viewers — Last Man Standing aired its first season on Tuesdays before settling into its Friday time slot. It does mean that there’s still plenty of potential for Shifting Gears, something that’s been lost for a lot of other shows on this list.
4. High Potential [Preseason: #10]
What High Potential lacks in linear ratings, it makes up for in multi-platform ratings. ABC’s newest procedural has broken a 2.0 Adults 18-49 demo rating in 7-day multi-platform viewing, making it one of the highest-rated shows on television when all is said and done. Its retention from Dancing With The Stars was rather weak in the fall, but ABC clearly sees potential for the show’s linear ratings to improve. It will slide to 9 pm in the spring, airing in between returning dramas Will Trent and The Rookie instead of being stuck at the end of the night. With a more compatible lead-in and earlier time slot, High Potential is one of few shows whose linear ratings may actually improve this coming spring.
5. St. Denis Medical [Preseason: #12]
NBC took a risk by scheduling new comedy St. Denis Medical to lead off Tuesday nights. The move has worked out well, with St. Denis Medical premiering surprisingly strong and leveling off at ratings high enough to still easily be NBC’s #1 sitcom. In a year where their two veteran sitcoms are pulling in weak ratings, NBC will take St. Denis Medical as a win. In fact, it’s currently one of their highest-rated shows in the Adults 18-49 demo Live + Same Day, trailing only The Voice and two of the three Chicagos. While its average is inflated by its strong premiere, its ranking does not slip when comparing current season lows.
6. Poppa’s House [Preseason: #8]
Poppa’s House is doing just about as good as one could expect for a multi-cam sitcom premiering at the bottom of the hour. It’s not the biggest hit of the season, but it’s far from a flop too. And while it struggles in multi-platform viewing compared to the rest of CBS, its first two episodes did still do better than its linear schedule lead-in in that metric. At the very least, Poppa’s House is not a clear underperformer, which is enough at this point to move up to #6 in the Power Rankings.
7. Watson [Preseason: #11]
Like Shifting Gears, Watson’s rise is a beneficiary of landing a solid time slot on the midseason schedule, combined with a few new shows not quite living up to their potential. There’s no guarantee Watson will find an audience, but CBS is at least trying more than we thought they were going into the season. Watson does hold potential, as CBS could have just stuck it in the Sundays at 10 or Fridays at 10 time slot with the intention to cancel it at the end of the season. Instead, they have chosen to give it as close to the same type of launch they gave Tracker last season.
8. NCIS: Origins [Preseason: #1]
Despite its potential and a solid start to the season, NCIS: Origins soon became the weak link on Monday nights for CBS. It’s now one of CBS’s lowest-rated shows, and has already gone as low as a 0.19 rating in the key Adults 18-49 Live + Same Day demo. The franchise’s best days ratings-wise simply appear to be behind it, with NCIS: Origins only accelerating the decline. NCIS: Origins was #1 in the pre-season Power Rankings as it was perceived to be a low-risk, high-reward type of series. The chances of it underperforming going into the season were perceived to be smaller than the other new shows, simply because of the franchise name and time slot. NCIS: Origins is far from the biggest failure of the season, but it’s also not even close to being the biggest success story either.
9. Doctor Odyssey [Preseason: #2]
Doctor Odyssey has quite simply had a disappointing fall. It premiered solidly in linear ratings, with viewership rising astronomically in multi-platform viewing. However, the show went on to receive mixed reviews, with subsequent ratings to reflect it. By its fall finale, it was down to a 0.25 demo rating in the key Adults 18-49 Live + Same Day demo, less than 70% retention from its lead-in: fellow Ryan Murphy drama 9-1-1. Like NCIS: Origins, Doctor Odyssey is far from the biggest flop of the season, but also did not quite live up to its full potential. Most notably, Doctor Odyssey is a drag on the night, with lead-out Grey’s Anatomy seeing abysmal year-to-year declines in its move to 10 pm.
10. Happy’s Place [Preseason: #8]
It’s still a little tough to get a good read on NBC’s Reba McEntire-led multi-cam Happy’s Place. Airing on Friday nights, Happy’s Place has been prone to ratings fluctuations that make it look strong some weeks and weak on others. It’s doing fine for an NBC comedy, but isn’t looking like the type of Friday night tentpole NBC was likely hoping it would be.
11. Universal Basic Guys [Preseason: #15]
Universal Basic Guys is FOX’s first entry in the mid-season Power Rankings, up four spots to #11 from the pre-season edition. The network’s latest cartoon had good weeks and bad weeks, but overall showed more promise than other newer cartoons like Krapopolis and Grimsburg. One of its worst showings came in its second week, when it aired at 8 pm on a week with no football lead-in in mid-September. While this early impression left Universal Basic Guys with a bad reputation, it tended to look better in more normal circumstances as the season went on. It might not be FOX’s fourth animated hit yet, but it’s the closest they’ve had in a while.
12. The Hunting Party [Preseason: #14]
Scheduled behind The Voice on Mondays in the spring, The Hunting Party has just about the best time slot it could ask for. Whether it capitalizes off that is an entirely different question, but the scheduling demonstrates the upcoming drama has some potential. Sure, a fall launch would have been more ideal for its ratings, but there are shows on this list in worse situations.
13. Suits: L.A. [Preseason: #9]
With Suits: L.A., NBC is hoping to capitalize off the newfound Netflix-fueled success of the 2010s USA drama Suits. Even they seem to have low expectations for its linear ratings, scheduling it on the historically barron Sunday nights in the spring behind a new unscripted series. Its streaming performance will be more interesting to follow, and could ultimately decide if Suits: L.A. was a worthwhile series order. Even then, it’s becoming increasingly tough to envision lightning striking twice, especially if this spin-off will stream on Peacock as opposed to Netflix.
14. Brilliant Minds [Preseason: #3]
NBC pretty consistently airs their most promising new drama in the Mondays at 10 pm time slot in the fall behind The Voice. The results are mixed, but this fall they did not find their next big drama hit. Brilliant Minds has gone as low as a 0.17 in the Adults 18-49 Live + Same Day demo. Despite the prime time slot, it is also currently the lowest-rated new scripted series on average across ABC, CBS, and NBC.
15. Rescue: HI-Surf [Preseason: #13]
Going into the season, FOX had scheduled their new lifeguard drama Rescue: HI-Surf, promoted to be of the new HI-Surf franchise, as the Super Bowl lead-out program. Those plans have since changed, with Rescue: HI-Surf’s post-Super Bowl spot now going to The Floor instead. On most weeks, its retention from lead-in 9-1-1: Lone Star is inexcusably low, rating right in line with the rest of FOX’s low-rated dramas. Its fortunes will likely get even tougher in the spring when the 9-1-1 spinoff is replaced with the new competition series Extracted.
16. Doc [Preseason: #16]
With Rescue: HI-Surf not being the hit FOX hoped for, wanted, and arguably expected, attention shifted to the upcoming medical drama Doc. In theory, it should have potential to do well with all the promotion FOX has given it. However, being a FOX drama in 2025, just a 0.20 Adults 18-49 Live + Same Day demo rating would be something to celebrate. It will air after Kitchen Nightmares in the same time slot occupied by Accused in the fall and Alert this past spring, so there ratings ceiling is arguably low for Doc regardless of promotion.
17. Murder in a Small Town [Preseason: #18]
Murder in a Small Town has the distinction of being the lowest-rated new scripted show on the Big 4 in fall 2024. It started out fairly promising for a FOX drama, and still managed to look solid compared to lead-out Accused throughout its eight-episode first season. Accused sets the bar extremely low though — Murder in a Small Town’s ratings would be flat-out inexcusable on any of the other broadcast networks. Overall it was a fairly uninspiring run for the Canadian co-production this fall for FOX’s standards, and pitiful for anyone else’s.
18. Grosse Pointe Garden Society [Preseason: #17]
Heading into the fall, it was unclear if Grosse Pointe Garden Society was even going to air in the 2024-25 TV season. We now know that it is, and in just about the worst time slot possible too: Sundays at 10 pm in the spring following Suits: L.A. at 9 pm and new unscripted series The Americas at 8 pm. Grosse Pointe Garden Society will be NBC’s first series premiere in that time slot in nine years with 2015’s American Odyssey, and the last for the foreseeable future. This looks to be as close to a burn-off as possible in today’s broadcast TV landscape.
19. Going Dutch [Preseason: #19]
In last place for the Big 4, just as it was in the preseason column, is FOX’s lone new live-action sitcom Going Dutch. This upcoming series, which is drawing comparisons to the ill-fated cult hit but ratings flop Enlisted, will air on Thursdays behind Animal Control. The odds are stacked against it in that time slot, yet FOX was left with little choice given their live-action comedy department is in an even more dire position than their live-action drama department.
20. Good Cop/Bad Cop [Preseason: #20]
Good Cop/Bad Cop is the only new non-imported scripted series on The CW to actually have a spot on the schedule as of this writing. The Roku co-produced dramedy is slated to premiere in February paired up with the solid-for-The-CW Wild Cards on Wednesday nights. From that alone, it edges out the lone other CW show on this list. However, there’s no reason to believe Good Cop/Bad Cop will be able to compete with shows on the other broadcast networks.
21. Sherlock & Daughter [Preseason: #21]
Co-produced with Discovery+, Sherlock & Daughter still does not have a time slot on The CW’s 2024-25 TV schedule. There is an open time slot on Mondays behind All American, which Sherlock & Daughter could possibly fill, but nothing has been announced yet. Expectations for this one were low going into the season, and remain low today.