Posted in: DC Universe, TV | Tagged: black lightning, cress williams, cw, entertainment, flash, HRL, television

Black Lightning Strikes with Strong Premiere Ratings

Published Wed, 17 Jan 2018 12:05:01 -0600

It was a very good Tuesday night for the CW as their top show returned from its midseason break and brought their newest show with it. The Flash's return, featuring an episode with Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) on trial for the murder of Clifford DeVoe (Neil Sandilands), did very well in the ratings. The show was up 13% in overall viewers, having a total audience of 2.47 million and was steady in its demo from the fall finale.

After that came the premiere of Black Lightning, starring Cress Williams as a retired hero forced to suit up again when his daughters lives are threatened by a local gang. The debut brought in 2.31 million total viewers and a 0.8 in the ever important 18-49 demographic. This is the non-crossover high for the time slot this season and is the best CW launch in two years, just shy of DC's Legends of Tomorrow's launch with 3.2 million/1.2 demo). This was the largest Tuesday at 9 p.m. audience (non-crossover) since Supernatural moved out of the time slot three years ago.

The buzz about the premiere episode has also been strong, indicating that the new series is off to a very good start. Though the show has not been directly connected to the Arrowverse, it's being promoted with those shows and the groundwork for a connection has been laid.

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