One of CBS‘ hot new prospects for the fall — the CBS Studios/Bruckheimer Television drama “Fire Country” — got off to a solid start in its linear debut Friday. The show also helped boost CBS’ live streaming numbers compared to the comparable fall Friday premiere night in 2021.
“Fire Country,” an action-drama revolving around California firefighters, opened to 5.74 million viewers in the 9 p.m. hour, according to Nielsen. The series built on its “S.W.A.T.” lead-in by a significant margin, as the sixth season premiere of the police drama brought in 4.6 million viewers at 8 p.m.
CBS capped the night with “Blue Bloods” grabbing 6.1 million viewers with its 13th season premiere at 10 p.m. CBS easily took Friday bragging rights in linear total viewers with an average of 5.5 million.
On live streaming platforms, “S.W.A.T” was up 4% in streams across Paramount+ and on CBS’ authenticated streaming partners, according to stats provided by CBS. “Fire Country” delivered 14% more streams than the performance by Season 4 bow of “Magnum PI” last year. “Blue Bloods” gained 12% to hit a new live streaming high.
“Fire Country” stars Max Thieriot, Billy Burke, Kevin Alejandro, Diane Farr and Stephanie Arcila. The series tells the stories of Northern California firefighters, including prison inmates trading work for time off their sentences, who are in the thick of battle against climate change and the Golden State’s increasingly year-round threat of wildfires. Tia Napolitano serves as showrunner and executive producer along with Jerry Bruckheimer, KristieAnne Reed, Jonathan Littman and David Grae.
