The series premiere of “The Vampire Diaries” on Thursday drew the biggest audience ever for a series debut on The CW – 4.84 million viewers. The new series was particularly strong with Women, giving the network reason to hope it has a real hit on its hands.
Taking over the lead-off position on Thursday night, The Vampire Diaries delivered The CW’s highest ratings ever in the 8-9pm time period with women 18-34 (3.0/10), women 18-49 (2.8/8), teens (2.7/11) and female teens (3.4/14). It also scored the best performance here in adults 18-34 (2.2/8), adults 18-49 (2.1/6) and viewers (4.84mil) since Oct. 2007.
According to the network, The Vampire Diaries out-performed last season’s “Smallville” premiere by 114% in women 18-34, 75% in women 18-49, 22% in adults 18-34, 17% in adults 18-49 and 11% in viewers.
The Vampire Diaries built in the second half hour, growing 18% with women 18-34, 10% in adults 18-34, 17% in females 12-34, 14% in persons 12-34, 12% in women 18-49, 10% in adults 18-49 and 9% in viewers.
Competitively, The Vampire Diaries was second in the 8-9 pm hour with women 18-34 and adults 18-34, behind only the NFL season kickoff on NBC. The CW noted that The Vampire Diaries also beat ABC and Fox in adults 18-49 and total viewers.
For its 5th season premiere, “Supernatural” improved over its strong premiere last year by 6% in women 18-34 (1.7/5). Following The Vampire Diaries in the 9-10 pm hour, Supernatural also scored its best women 18-34 (1.7/5) and women 18-49 (1.7/5) ratings since Jan. 2009.
The CW’s said its new combination of The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural scored the network’s best Thursday ever with women 18-34 (2.4/7) and women 18-49 (2.2/6). This marked The CW’s best Thursday since March 2007 with adults 18-34 (1.8/6) and the network’s largest Thursday audience – 4.1 million – since Sept. 2008.
Competitively, The CW was second on Thursday night with women 18-34 and adults 18-34. It was third overall in Adults 18-49 and total viewers, behind NBC and CBS, but ahead of Univision, ABC and Fox.
