Monarch, which was supposed to premiere last spring, debuted yesterday night at 7:45 p.m. ET, following an NFL doubleheader.
The country music drama averaged 0.8 adults 18-49 Live+Same Day ratings and 3.8 million total viewers, with an encore immediately following drawing an additional 0.2 rating and 1.5 million viewers for a total of 1.0 rating and 5.3 million viewers on premiere night, according to Nielsen fast nationals.
Both telecasts were competing against the massive Sunday Night Football Cowboys-Buccaneers matchup, which featured unretired superstar Tom Brady.
Monarch and Next Level Chef on Fox is the No. 1 scripted and unscripted series premieres in L+SD adults 18-49 ratings across broadcast and cable in 2022. (This includes the linear L+SD section of HBO’s House of the Dragon, which received 0.6 in 18-49, despite the fact that a major chunk of that show’s viewing is done on HBO Max.)
Monarch is also Fox’s most-watched autumn scripted premiere in three years, since Prodigal Son in September 2019, but it’s worth noting that Fox hasn’t aired a new fall scripted series in front of an NFL game since The Orville in 2017.
Following the debut, Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier congratulated the network’s team via email.
