Shocking! Ok, not really.

Last night’s season premiere of Scandal was a hit, drawing the largest number of viewers in its history! 

How many? 10.5 million (a 3.6 rating) tuned in, giving the ABC drama series highs in total viewers and Adults 18-49. It was the #2 TV show of the entire night in Adults 18-49, behind only CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. So it did even better than the show that comes on before it – another Shonda Rhimes drama, Grey’s Anatomy, which is also doing very well for the network.

To compare its season 1 and 2 premiere episodes:

– Season 1’s Scandal premiere drew 7.3 million.

– Season 2’s Scandal premiere drew 6.7 million.

Regarding social media activity – where the series, its cast and crew set the standard: The Scandal premiere delivered 712,877 tweets, which is the show’s highest social delivery to date and stood as the #1 most social series on Thursday night.

Even the Scandal recap special, which brought audiences up to speed, and ready for season 3, beat programming on other networks, in its 8-9pm time-slot. It drew an impressive 5.7 million viewers! Some regular series would love to have those numbers. This was a recap special!

But clearly it’s attracted a healthy number of new viewers, which is a very good thing for the series, its stars, writing staff, creator and fans. And while I’d posit that the series’ audience comprises heavily of black women, I’m sure there are also quite a few non-black white women (and men) who tune in as well. I won’t be surprised if ABC announces, before the season is over, that Scandal has been renewed for a 4th season, with numbers like this, that only seem to continue to improve.

I’m sure a lot of you watched. I couldn’t, but I’ll catch up eventually. So I can’t offer any valuable commentary. But, by all means, if you tuned in, was it all you hoped it would be, and more?