“Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” a new weekly series on TBS fronted by the “Daily Show” grad, drew solid sampling of more than 2 million viewers across multiple Turner networks in its premiere last night.
Airing at 10:30 p.m., telecasts of “Full Frontal” combined to draw 2.16 million viewers on Adult Swim (986,000), TBS (629,000), TNT (402,000) and TruTV (142,000). Roughly 1.22 million of the viewers were adults 18-49, with Adult Swim accounting for about 570,000 and TBS about 355,000.
Review: ‘Full Frontal With Samantha Bee’
It will take a few weeks to see how “Full Frontal,” which will air opposite the Grammys in its second week, settles in when it plays solely on TBS. Cable congloms have done similar roadblock programming in the past, including Viacom with the “MTV Video Music Awards” and last fall’s launch of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” The strategy helps bring more attention to an event by corralling the resources of the channels under its umbrella while at the same time lowering expectations for viewership on the primary channel.
In its premiere last September, Noah attracted 3.475 million viewers across a dozen Viacom networks. On Comedy Central alone, it opened to 1.09 million viewers, including 561,000 adults 18-49.
In advance of its first episode, “Full Frontal” led last week’s Trending leaderboard, according to ListenFirst’s Digital Audience Ratings. It racked up more than 1 million viewers on YouTube, led by several new teaser clips for the program.
