'The Orville' Is Fox's Biggest Premiere In Years

09/16/2017 04:38 pm EDT

The Orville debuted to big ratings on Sunday, and those numbers have grown significantly in the days since.

The Orville's ratings in the key age 19-49 demographic grew 30 percent in Live+3 ratings, from 2.8 in Live+Same Day to 3.5.

That brings total viewership of the show's premiere episode in Live+3 up to 11.3 million from 8.6 million Live+Same Day.

The Orville's Live+Same Day premiere numbers tied those of ABC's hit This Is Us and Fox comedy The Mick, which were the two highest-rated debuts of last season (not counting 24: Legacy, which had the Super Bowl as a lead-in). In Live+3, The Orville remains on par with The Mick, which also followed NFL Football, at 3.5, but has fallen behind This Is Us, which scored a 4.2.

These numbers make The Orville Fox's biggest hour-long debut since Empire, which earned a 5.3 in the 18-49 demo when it premiered in 2015.

In the core men's demographic, which creator and star Seth MacFarlane's work has traditionally scored high with, The Orville scored a 2.8, which is also the highest since Empire's 3.1 in 2015.

The Orville is also Fox's most streamed debut in three years. The show's premiere has been viewed 650,000 times on Fox Now and Hulu. That's the most streams since Gotham debuted in 2014 with 865,000 streams.

Fox is pitching The Orville as having a special two-night premiere, meaning that the show's second episode, "Command Performance," in the same Sunday night time slot following NFL Football. The Orville will then move to Thursday nights after Gotham for the remainder of its first season run.

The Orville is an unabashed love letter to classic Star Trek television, of which MacFarlane is openly a fan. The first episode alone had plenty of Star Trek Easter eggs and homages for fans to enjoy and future episodes will include cameo appearances by Star Trek actors.

Source: Deadline

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