After five days of depressed Premiere Week Live+Same Day ratings amid another set of year-to-year HUT level declines (-7% in adults 18-49, -12% in total viewers), the question was whether the retreat will be made up by delayed viewing. Judging by the first Live+3 numbers this season, so far the answer is “not really”.

We already saw very little upward rating adjustment in the finals this week, indicating that there was little same-day DVR catch-up. There was not a whole lot of it in the first three days of playback either.

The biggest absolute L+3 gains for Premiere Monday series were +4.34 million viewers (ABC’s The Good Doctor) and +0.8 adults 18-49 rating points (tied, Good Doctor, Fox’s 9-1-1). For comparison, there were four Premiere Monday series that posted bigger that +0.8 absolute demo increases last year and four to log bigger audience gain than +4.34 million, led by the whopping +5.7 million viewers and +1.47 18-49 rating lift for new Monday NBC drama The Manifest.

Seeing Premiere Week unfold and the threshold of acceptable Live+Same Day performance slipping, what we perceived as modest ratings starts on Monday turned out to be some of Premiere Week’s strongest openers.

Monday featured the top new series so far in L+SD 18-49 (Fox’s Prodigal Son) and L+SD total viewers (CBS’ All Rise) . With Live+3 lifts factored in, Prodigal Son (1.5 demo rating) remains No. 1 in 18-49 and All Rise (7.73 million) No.1 in total viewers.

With the strong lifts for both of its Monday dramas, Fox, which finished second to NBC among 18-49 in L+SD (1.3 vs. 1.4) leapfrogged over NBC in L3 (1.9 vs. 1.8) to post its first Premiere Monday victory in 10 years.

9-1-1, which finished a tenth behind NBC’s The Voice in L+SD 18-49, jumped ahead as the top Monday program (L+3 18-49), while The Good Doctor almost tied The Voice for the top spot in total viewers and is poised to claim the tentpole position in Live+7.

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