Ratings: The Flash Hits the Ground Running, CW's Best Debut in 5 Years 

The CW’s new superhero series on Tuesday night debuted to 4.5 million total viewers and a 1.8 demo rating, marking the network’s most watched and highest rated series launch since

grew in both measures over the course of the hour.

‘s quick start — which TVLine readers gave an average grade of “A-“ — was up sharply from

‘ year-ago premiere in the Tuesday lead-off spot (2 mil/0.9), and it even bested sire

‘s own launch numbers (4.1 mil/1.3). All told, it stands as The CW’s third-best series premiere ever.

(average grade: “B+”) returned to 2.8 mil — its most watched season opener since Season 6 — and a 1.2 rating, up from its finale and matching its previous premiere (pending adjustments).

(15.3 mil/2.3) both shed some eyeballs but were steady in the demo, while

(2.6 mil/1.3) added some eyeballs, while

Want scoop on any of the above shows? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.

Congrats to The Flash! Loved the premiere, I hope it stays strong.

Holy crap! I was expecting a 1.2 at the most. This is amazing by CW standards.

I didn’t watch the show nor do I have anything against it just don’t like the genre. I do like Grant Gustin from his Glee appearances. However to get a 1.8 with “only” 4.5 million watching causes me concern as an older person. Oh well good luck to the show but hopefully CW doesn’t just do this genre.

What is your concern about the rating? It means not a lot of people watched, but those who did were of the crowd the networks’ advertisers covet. The CW is primarily a genre network; they had Smallville for eons, and they’ve had other types of shows from different genres.

Well, CW is a youth oriented network, similar to MTV, focused on 18-34 or younger. Whereas CBS or TNT are in for the 25-54 crowd. The Flash is exactly the kind of show they should be doing when targeting this demo.

They’ll be a champagne jamboree at the CW offices this afternoon.

Not really surprised. I was expecting it to come out swinging much like Arrow did. Hopefully it can stay strong.

I am glad that Flash was a winner. I can’t wait to read the show got renewal for the second season. I can’t wait to see how the writer will developed the character individual storyline.

I’m surprised considering so many of us already saw the pilot when it leaked

That’d be an interesting Venn diagram, Nielsen Households and People Who Seek Out Illegal Rips.

I’ve got into more things and spent more money because I first checked them out illegally than I can even recount, first and foremost owning every album Rory Gallagher ever put out.

Haha yes! You cant even have them on the same page

Well consider that everyone of us who watched the leaked version probably told ten of our friends how awesome it was and were very unlikely to be Nielsen box owners it’s not really that surprising.

It will be interesting to see the ratings for the next episode. Most shows lose viewers after the pilot. But in this case the ratings could possibly increase if people who illegally watched the pilot tune in for the second episode. Maybe the people who saw the first episode before it aired were supportive enough to watch it live too. Hopefully The Flash can keep most of its viewers.

I saw the leaked pilot and still watched it again because I wanted to see it in HD

This is great news for The Flash, which I loved. Sad news for ABC, though. I really like Selfie and MLS (especially this one), but it looks like I’m the only one. Also, Forever needs to stop sliding!!! They should do a crossover with Castle, since it looks like the two shows are in the same universe.

I like Selfie too! I kept thinking it would work well on Fox paired with The Mindy Project.

I also like MLS, this episode was way strong than the pilot.

You are not the only one! I love them too! I just wish that they had given Selfie a better title. I have tried to get other people to watch it, but they are turned off by the dumb moniker.

Every fall is the worst. Just when you get attached to a show, it disappears forever.

C’mon! Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was awesome last night!

I was impressed with how enjoyable and well-executed the pilot was. Only flaw in the whole episode, for me, was the whole Iris dating the douchey cop thing, which felt unnecessarily arbitrary, just to drum up drama, but that’s overall a pretty minor complaint. I’ll certainly be tuning in next week, and I can guess a whole lot of others will be as well.

I see what you did there with the sire line! Also, I’m stoked the show came out strong!

Excellent numbers considering the pilot episode got leaked months back!

I love Agents of SHIELD, but damn. ABC is dying a long, slow death on Tuesdays.

I gotta say it turned out to be a lot better than I thought it might. Great news for the CW that they have a hit on their hands. We should be seeing Flash and Arrow crossovers for many years to come now.

I gotta say this too however: I am F’n UP TO HERE with shows that start with “My Name Is….” Networks should have more faith in the intelligence of their viewers then perpetually think they have to force feed them expository openings all the time. Just sayin.

Selfie was actually really funny yesterday. It’s a shame that people won’t give it a chance.

It really was. Many belly laughs from me!

I enjoyed last night’s eps of both Selfie and MLS much more than I did their pilots, although the “thought bubble” comments on MLS are getting annoying.

I’m glad The Flash did well! My ABC shows are falling really quickly. Definitely not happy about that one.

Those two FOX Tuesday Night comedies need to move to a new FOX night ASAP for safety!

Definitely not surprised by the dip on Manhattan Love Story. I watched last week and hated the characters and the writing was horrendous. NBC’s A to Z, which is similar, is so much better.

That’s great for The Flash. I really enjoyed the premiere! I think it benefited that it was A) a little more recognizable “super” hero than the Green Arrow AND it had the added benefit of a crossover/push from the already well established Arrow. Methinks CW would handle Gotham better too. ;)

Actually, I think the CW should seriously try to get a Wonder Woman pilot off the ground. I know this has been tried before and failed at another network but I think it would go over much better at the CW.

The advantage to the CW is that people don’t take them as seriously as they do the big 4 (I don’t mean that as a dig to CW b/c I think it works in their favor when it comes to these type of shows.

I’m a little bummed about Selfie though. I thought the show was funny, the 2nd episode was even better than the 1st. I’ve laughed more watching it than I have watching an episode of TBBT.

The CW would not handle Gotham better. Gotham is too dark for The CW and the casting would’ve been terrible on The CW. CW has already started filling The Flash with non actors from failed shows

Couldn’t have done any worse than Fox. Gotham is a cartoon.

I didn’t like it and I do NOT want to see it on my television anymore. I’m going to launch a petition for its cancellation. You should all stop watching as well.

Best show in a looong time👍‼️THE FLASH ⚡️

Glad to see that The Flash did so well. It is nice that DC finally has on of its lighter characters on TV. It’s had a bit of a dark and gloomy reputation lately, just because the characters that get the most attention have been more serious characters. But Flash lets us smile a bit, which is nice. I’m eager to see how everyone settles into their roles and where the plot goes. I do think that it is strange to have the Flash world and the Arrow world so closely connected. I somehow can’t picture Oliver fighting Weather Wizard. Overall, solid premiere. I think that the show may actually appeal to more people than Arrow, since it is more fun. So it will probably eventually settle into the 2.5 or 3.0 area, ratings-wise.

The fact that it actually beat Agents of SHIELD though, is shocking. For an CW show to beat an ABC show… that shouldn’t even be possible. I don’t think that Disney would wan to cancel their Marvel infomercial, but it is getting harder and harder for them to rationalize keeping it around.

If the Flash is the CW’s third best premiere ever and Vampire Diaries was number one, what was number two???

I’d have to guess THE ARROW OF STARLING CITY.

But you wrote yourself that Arrow landed a 4.1m/1.3. Consider me confuzzled!

Zorkel prolly nailed it below — 9O21O

I would imagine Reaper and Smallville are up there too. Reaper pulled a 2.1 for its premiere years back. Smallville had a high premiere in terms of viewer numbers but I cant for the life of me find data on its 18-49 for said episode.

I’m not sure about that, perhaps in overall viewers yes, but it only got a 1.3.

They need to put NCIS: LA behind NCIS: New Orleans on Tuesdays. And put Person of Interest on Monday nights. Flash was going to be big, now we shall see the retention potential for the show. ABC has made gains on Thursdays but is still suffering some…

POI won’t be moved, its doing great for CBS in that slot. And NCIS LA won’t do much better there.

Wow nice job for their premiere. Hope it doesn’t fall off too much over the season. Next up Arrow. So much talk about the new season – I really hope that it translates to a significant boost in the ratings tonight. At least a 1.3 in the demo…

Hopefully, The Flash will help renew interest in Arrow (especially with all the crossovers that they’re doing.) Barry in will in the season premiere of Arrow tonight so fans of The Flash should watch!

yeah, arrow deserve a boost too. coz AK learned a lot on arrow, in terms of what is working n what is not. he incorporated the positives of arrow on flash. im a die hard arrow fan who is rooting for flash too..

superhero shows r better than those puke worrhy vampire shows.

I think we all saw Selfie and Manhattan Love Storys demise coming. Also, I never imagined the CW could get so high, considering how mediocre a lot of stuff is doing on the network. The Flash saves the day :)

Am I the only one that loves the “Selfie” show?? I think it’s really funny. Coming from someone like me wo is addicted to social media, twitter, Instagram and Facebook, it is spot on and just hilarious. Hey, ABC hold on to this one just a bit longer…. PLEASE!

Was kind of rooting for MANHATTAN LOVE STORY so disappointed. I do not care for SELFIE. Glad for CW’s THE FLASH. I liked the John Wesley Shipp incarnation back in the day.

I wonder if NCIS New Orleans should be renamed NCIS Corn Pone. I have never seen 3 accomplished actors, with tears of experience work so hard to come across like the Dukes of Hazard, led by Roscoe P Coltraine. The writing for this show is almost an embarrassment, and I can see this the first of the NCIS types to bite the dust. I have to force my self to stay with the show, and not kill my series recordings. I stay because I like the actors involved, and have followed them through thick and thin; However, I think if the writers continue down the hee haw path, ehe crap will be too deep for me to wade through!

ABC… time to rework your Tuesdays. It ain’t working. Sad that AOS is going down with this hot mess.

I’m not american so I don’t get the ratings too weel but is the 1.6 a good thing for poi when its on so late? I love the heck out of the show, it gets better and better each season, would hate to see it canned before it finishes its story.

Selfie was so funny! why aren’t more people watching it??? It’s not put together well but there were so many fun scenes…Karen is great John cho is hillarious…

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Ratings: The Flash Hits the Ground Running, CW\'s Best Debut in 5 Years; ABC Sitcoms Tumble, POI Slips

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