Ghost Rider's Agents Of SHIELD Debut Draws Middling Ratings

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD has returned for its fourth season on ABC. Despite the introduction of Ghost Rider, the Season 4 premiere episode, "The Ghost," ranked only average ratings for the series.

Gabriel Luna debuted as Robbie Reyes, the Ghost Rider, in "The Ghost," taking on Daisy "Quake" Johnson (Chloe Bennet) in the episode. We thought "The Ghost" was a solid and exciting episode, and fans who tuned in reacted positively to Ghost Rider's appearance, but the ratings don't reflect that enthusiasm.

Agents of SHIELD earned a 1.1 with the key 18-34 demographic, and 3.58 million live viewers overall. That's down from the 1.7 Agents of SHIELD earned with its Season 3 premiere, but it is average for the series overall. It is also and upswing for ABC's 10 p.m. time slot, which the network struggled with all last season.

ABC was probably hoping that Ghost Rider's first appearance would draw a lot of Agents of SHIELD for Season 4. That didn't happen for "The Ghost," but word of mouth may yet shore up the numbers as the series progresses.

In Agents of SHIELD Season 4, in light of the Sokovia Accords, and with Hydra obliterated, SHIELD has been legitimatized again and no longer needs to operate in the shadows. Since the world presumes that Coulson is dead, the organization needed a new Director to be the face of the organization. Coulson finds himself back in the role as an agent and teamed with Mack, and together they are tasked with tracking down and confirming the presence of Enhanced people, aka Inhumans. Agent May is tasked with training specialist strike teams, and Fitz and Simmons have taken a big step forward in their relationship.

Agents of SHIELD Season 4 airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.