Steven Bochco’s crime drama “Murder in the First” opened to decent numbers on Monday night for TNT, as the net’s ambitious summer season got underway. “Murder” enjoyed a nice lead-in from vet “Major Crimes,” which was up vs. its year-ago bow.
According to Nielsen estimates, the serialized series premiered to a 0.64 rating in adults 18-49 (808,000 viewers in this age range), a 0.88 in adults 25-54 (roughly 1.4 million) and about 3.8 million viewers overall. In 18-49, this is on par with the June 2013 premiere of “King & Maxwell,” which did not make it past a first season, but puts the show among the top 10 basic-cable series premieres of the calendar year in demos.
In total viewers, “Murder,” which follows the solving of one murder case and stars Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson as detectives, came in higher than “King & Maxwell” (3.52 million) and is the most-watched premiere on cable in 2014.
Leading into “Murder in the First” was the season premiere of “Major Crimes,” which did a 0.95 rating in adults 18-49 (1.2 million), a 1.29 in adults 25-54 (1.5 million) and 5.2 million viewers overall — up 1%, 6% and 3% respectively vs. its year-ago opener.
Adding in a encore late Monday, “Major Crimes” drew 1.6 million adults 18-49 and 6.7 million total viewers for the night. And with its second airing included, “Murder’s” totals rose to 1.1 million adults 18-49 and 4.9 million viewers overall.
TNT will be airing an unprecedented number of original dramas — nine — this summer, including newcomers “The Last Ship” (June 22) and “Legends” (Aug. 13).
