'Black Lightning' Premiere Rerun Pulls in Big Ratings for The CW

The CW's newest DC Comics-inspired superhero show had a strong debut, and it looks like Black Lightning's momentum isn't letting up.

The network ran an encore of Black Lightning's premiere episode Friday night and not only did it pull in some strong numbers in its second airing, but it even beat out the ratings for last week's brand-new episode of The CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

According to ratings reported by TV Line, Black Lightning's pilot episode, "The Resurrection," brought in over one million live viewers last night, almost twice the live viewers last week's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend brought in. Friday night's rerun performance also sit at just under half of what the first broadcast brought in.

Black Lightning's premiere episode drew the highest numbers for any non-crossover episode of TV in the 9pm Tuesday night slot this season and also marked the most-watched series premiere for the network since Legends of Tomorrow drew in 3.2 million viewers a few years ago. And the show's premiere ratings aren't the only indicator that the highly-anticipated show is finding its audience. During the initial airing of the premiere and for an hour after, #BlackLightning was listed as the top trending topic among Twitter users in the United States with an overwhelming number of those responses being positive.

Black Lightning hasn't just been winning over audiences, either. The show's premiere episode has a 100-percent rating critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes making it the most popular television show on the review aggregator site ahead of The End of the F**ing World and Black Mirror. This positive response, from both critics and fans, is what Christine Adams -- who plays Lynn Pierce in the series -- told ComicBook.com is most gives the show legitimacy.

"You guys are the legitimacy of doing a comic book show in the sense that the people who read comics and love that kind of material, it matters to us what they think." Adams said. "We know that this is an environment where there's a lot of superhero shows, so the fact that it's resonating with you is really exciting."

The positive response is also exciting considering how directly Black Lightning's premiere tackled social issues -- particularly racial discrimination -- with authentic representation.

"It is rooted in race as the world is now," Marvin "Krondon" Jones III, who plays Tobias Whale, told ComicBook.com. "I think that it's relatable to real life. Like, even though it's a universe or multiverse or whatever you want to call it, right? It's still very much so in today's time. It's dealing with the truths of today, whether you are a single mother, single father, student, gay or straight, black or white, dark or light, you know? It's dealing with the truths and the realities that you may deal with of substance in your own life."

Black Lightning airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.