For many years now, networks have used the Super Bowl as a lead-in for heavily promoted new shows and the return of fan favorites – or in
this year’s case,
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – but everyone is slowly getting wise to adopting that same strategy using the
NFL’s playoff and championship games to frontload the potential ratings. Sunday night’s NFC Championship was about as one-sided as games get, but the telecast’s huge audience helped to give the
X-Files revival premiere the kind of ratings that probably inspired a massive sigh of relief at Fox.
Though the numbers aren’t set in stone just yet, preliminary results are showing that the first installment of
The X-Files miniseries, dubbed “My Struggle,” was watched by nearly 13.47 million people, making it one of Fox’s most impressive debuts in ages. (It definitely spanked the pants off of all the 2015 premieres, including
Empire,
Rosewood,
Scream Queens and
Wayward Pines.) The episode also topped everything else on broadcast TV last night that didn’t involve the Arizona Cardinals getting pummeled by the Carolina Panthers, with only the two hours of
60 Minutescoming anywhere close.