Friday Ratings: S.W.A.T. Returns Up, Fire Country Grows Vs. Freshman Finale

In the latest TV show ratings, CBS' Fire Country — last TV season's most-watched, highest-rated freshman series — was Friday's most-watched program.

With its final-season premiere, CBS' S.W.A.T. drew 5.12 million total viewers, improving on both its May finale (4.7 mil) and its previous season's average (5 mil).

Fire Country (with 5.51 million viewers, TVLine reader grade "B+"; read recap) grew vs. its freshman finale but was down a smidgen from its Season 1 average (5.9 mil).

Blue Bloods (5.4 mil) kicked off the first half of its farewell season down from both its May finale and its previous season's average, copping one of its smallest audiences (but not the smallest) ever.

More to come, including demo numbers and Fox/The CW performance, later this weekend.... (I'm busy catching up on post-TCA, post-Criminal Minds set visit sleep/life.)

Want SCOOP on any of the above? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt's Inside Line!

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.