Nov. 21--The freshman ABC drama "How to Get Away With Murder" posted strong ratings for its mid-season finale, as the Disney network scored a victory Thursday night, according to preliminary numbers from Nielsen.
The series earned a rating of 3.1 in the 18-49 demo, up 7% from last week. In terms of total viewership, "Murder" drew an average of 9.8 million people.
"Murder," along with "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy," helped ABC win the night in terms of both total viewership and the advertiser-desired young adults, if numbers hold up.
Ratings for Thursday night are subject to change, because some network affiliates opted for live coverage of President Obama's immigration address, and CBS and NBC had NFL pre-emptions in parts of the country.
CBS' "Big Bang Theory" was again the biggest show of the night, with 14.6 million viewers total and a rating of 4.0 in 18-49, though it was down 11% from a week ago. The eye network was No. 2 overall for the night, behind behind ABC.
On NBC, the entire lineup ticked up, particularly "Parenthood." The tear-jerker drama, now in its final season, rose 50% to a 1.5 in 18-49, its highest rating in more than a year. Fox's shows "Bones" and "Gracepoint' were flat, week-to-week.
