9JKL Premiere is… all right.

The Los Angeles Times liked it. It liked that it had a familiar 3-camera feel to it. It liked the comfort food factor and there may be something to that considering that the news of yet another mass shooting filled TV screens Monday night. For those that chose “9JKL”, they liked the familiarity of that type of concept and/or was in need of some comedic relief. The worse drama, in this case, being an overbearing mother. Its HH Rating share was 5.3/8 coming in as the bronze medalist for the Monday evening lineup.

Yes, it fared worse than “Young Sheldon” that aired a week prior in second place with 17.2 million viewers according to Nielsen. However, “9JKL” doesn’t have the relation advantage that “Young Sheldon” has with the “Big Bang Theory” lead-in.

A majority of critics still pan it, but many seem to love Albert Tsai, who, as mentioned, got pulled up to a series regular. Popular little guy. The way things are going for him we may be seeing him headlining his own show in a couple years, you know, after he graduates high school.

The good news to note here is that it’s not the critics that keep it on the air, it’s the audiences and thus far, the audiences have given the show their eyes.

It will be interesting to see the return audience next week. Will it hold steady? Improve? Falter? It will only have “Big Bang” as a lead in temporarily. CBS will be shifting “Big Bang” and “Young Sheldon” to compete with NBC’s must see TV Thursday line-up that includes the highly rated “Will and Grace” re-boot.

Because of this, at some point in time, “9JKL” will have to stand on its own, unless they get lucky and CBS moves “9JKL” with the Cooper family to the Upper East Side of TV land.

Photo courtesy of CBS