‘Last Man Standing’ Leads the Night in Friday TV Ratings

Last Man Standing took a slide in the ratings for its return after a one-week sabbatical, but was still the highest-rated show Friday night. CBS’ Blue Bloods was still the most-watched show overall and ABC’s Speechless scored season-high numbers.

Tim Allen’s sitcom was off last week because of the World Series, but returned with a new episode that introduced a new character. According to Deadline, Last Man Standing took in just over 6 million viewers and a 1.1 18-49 rating. Both were down from the previous new episode.

After that, The Cool Kids took in 4.23 million viewers and a 0.9 rating in the key demographic. Hell’s Kitchen had a 0.7 demo rating and 2.61 million viewers. Both shows were steady compared to their previous new episodes.

Over at ABC, Fresh Off The Boat was up to 3 million viewers and a 0.6 18-49 rating. Speechless had 2.5 million viewers and a 0.5 18-49 rating. Speechless‘ audience was the biggest of the season so far.

ABC also aired the game show Child Support, which pulled in 2.28 million viewers and just a 0.5 18-49 rating, reports TV By The Numbers. 20/20 had 2.54 million viewers and a 0.4 18-49 rating.

CBS had a rebound night, with all three shows up from last week’s episodes that competed against the World Series. MacGyver attracted 6.09 million viewers and a 0.8 18-49 rating, while Hawaii Five-0 had 7.79 million viewers and a 0.9 18-49 rating. Although Blue Bloods‘ rating in the demographic was only a 0.8, the show was the most-watched on the night with 8.57 million viewers.

NBC’s Friday programming continues to be ignored by most viewers. Blindspot only had 2.43 million viewers and a 0.4 18-49 rating, which was even with last week. Midnight, Texas was even as well, but that only means 1.96 million viewers tuned in. The show had a 0.4 rating in the demographic. Dateline was up with 2.87 million viewers and a 0.5 18-49 rating.

The CW’s Dynasty had 600,000 viewers and a 0.2 18-49 rating. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend barely registered, with only 470,000 viewers and a 0.1 18-49 rating.

When breaking numbers down by network, Fox was the highest-rated of the night, with a 0.9 18-49 average over its two hours of primetime programming. CBS kept the most-watched titled with 7.49 million viewers on average for its three dramas.

This week’s episode of Last Man Standing brought a new character to the fold. In “One Flew Into The Empty Nest,” Mike (Allen) and Vanessa (Nancy Travis) welcomed Jen (Krista Marie Yu), a foreign exchange student from Hong Kong, to their home.

Mike tried to show a different side of himself when he met Jen’s father Henry (Francois Chau), but it actually had the opposite effect Mike wanted. However, Mike later impressed Henry at Outdoor Man by assuring him that Vanessa is a great mother. Once the new semester starts, Jen will live with the Baxters in Colorado.

Last Man Standing airs on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

Photo credit: Michael Becker/Fox