Ratings: Elsbeth Opens Strong, Improves CBS Time Slot 45% Year-Over-Year

CBS' Elsbeth cracked her first case on Thursday night in front of 4.5 million total viewers, delivering nearly 100% retention of lead-in So Help Me Todd's audience. In the demo, it scored a 0.3 rating.

The Carrie Preston-led Good Wife offshoot also improved on what CSI: Vegas did in the time slot a year ago by 45%, and outdrew its NBC (Law & Order: Organized Crime) and ABC (a Will Trent rerun) competition combined.

TVLine readers gave Elsbeth an average grade of "A-"; read our full recap.

The catch? Due to the State of the Union Address airing next week... presumably a decision to dodge the return of ABC's Thursday slate on March 14... and then CBS' March Madness coverage, Elsbeth Episode 2 won't arrive until April 4. In five weeks. Which is its own kind of madness.

Opening CBS' night, Young Sheldon (with 7 million total viewers and a 0.5 rating) was up a tick in audience week-to-week, as were Ghosts (6.1 mil/0.5) and So Help Me Todd (4.53 million/0.3).

Over on NBC, Law & Order (4.7 mil/0.4) and SVU (4.7 mil/0.5) dipped in both measures, while Organized Crime (4.3 mil/0.4) was only down in viewers.

Fox's Next Level Chef (2 mil/0.3) was steady, while Farmer Wants a Wife (1.9 mil/0.2) rose to its second-best audience of the season

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The Live+Same Day numbers reported in our ratings column do not reflect a show's overall performance, given the increased use of delayed playback via DVR and streaming platforms, plus out-of-home viewing. These numbers (Nielsen fast nationals, unless denoted as finals) instead aim to simply illustrate trends or superlatives. Steve Harvey is not a judge or lawyer and merely offers an alternative forum of dispute resolution.