TV Ratings: ‘Shades of Blue’ Season 3 Opens at Series Low

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The third and final season of NBC’s “Shades of Blue” hit a new series low in its premiere on Sunday night.

Airing at 10 p.m., “’s” Season 3 opener averaged a 0.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.5 million viewers. That is down nearly 40% in the demo and  just over 30% in total viewers from the Season 2 premiere. In fairness, Season 2 debuted in the spring of last year, when more people are typically watching TV. Still, in addition to hitting a new series low, the Jennifer Lopez-led cop drama finished second in its timeslot against ABC’s “To Tell the Truth.” It was announced in April that this season of “Shades of Blue” would be its last .

Earlier on , “Dateline NBC” (0.5, 4 million) was even and was followed by a repeat of “America’s Got Talent.”

On ABC, “Celebrity Family Feud” (1.1, 5.8 million) and “The $100,000 Pyramid” (0.9, 5.1 million) were both down. “To Tell the Truth” (0.8, 3.9 million) held steady.

CBS aired mostly repeats except for a new episode of “Instinct” (0.4, 5.3 million), which was down in both measures.

Fox aired repeats except for the special “One Strange Rock” (0.5, 1.9 million) and a new episode of “Ghosted” (0.5,1.3 million), which was up.

ABC won the night with a 0.8 and 4.6 million viewers. NBC was second in the demo with a 0.6 but third in viewers with 3.8 million. Fox was third in the demo with a 0.5 but fourth in viewers with 1.6 million. CBS was fourth in the demo with a 0.4 but second in viewers with 4.5 million.