Life in Pieces pulled in some interesting numbers for the new episode they aired on Thanksgiving night.  While the show had its lowest total audience to date with 7.61 million viewers, it had its highest18-49 demographic since the premiere, pulling in a 2.1.  Despite the dip in total viewership, this was a significant week for Life in Pieces as they have been struggling with their 18-49 ratings all season.

Despite this weeks ratings spike, the show is still struggling to cultivate a passionate audience. Critics remain mostly “meh” in regards to the series and the shows social media following is dismal compared to competing shows. The show also has a virtually non-existent DVR following, as their Live +3 and Live +7 numbers barely deviate from their overnight numbers.

Despite all of the lukewarm reception, Life in Pieces is still pulling in the strongest numbers for a freshman comedy this season. Ultimately, this demonstrates the power of having The Big Bang Theory as a lead-in. At this point, Life in Pieces doesn’t seem to have the enthusiasm necessary to carry its own night. However, it will likely be able to survive comfortably in the shadow of The Big Bang Theory for a few seasons.

Life in Pieces is now well into its first season, having aired its seventh episode this past Thursday night. The episode drew in 7.99 million viewers for an 18-49 rating of 1.8, which is pretty consistent with numbers from the past five episodes. Though Life in Pieces is still receiving luke-warm reviews from critics, it seems to have found a pretty considerable core audience. The numbers have certainly proved strong enough for CBS, who ordered a full 22-episode in late October.

Interestingly, while Life in Pieces has consistently stronger numbers than other sitcoms that have premiered this season, its social media following is much weaker. The official Life in Pieces twitter account only has about 3,700 followers. FOX’s two new comedies this season, The Grinder and Grandfathered, have 7,000 and 11,500 twitter, respectively. On Facebook, Life in Pieces has 32,000 likes while The Grinder and Grandfathered have 91,000 and 200,000 likes, respectively.

Twitter accounts for Life in Pieces and fellow freshman comedies, The Grinder and Grandfathered (both on FOX)

Ultimately, this is indicative of a core audience that is large but not particularly passionate. While Life in Pieces has already received a full first season order, their audience might be too passive to keep the show around for the long run.

Life in Pieces returned to TV this week in its new Thursday night timeslot. The shows sixth episode pulled in 7.88 million viewers and had an 18-49 rating of 1.9, making it the second weakest week since the show’s premiere.

A new timeslot means new competition for Life in Pieces. CBS is the only network airing two half-hour comedies in the 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm timeslot on Thursday nights. Thus, Life in Pieces
is going up against the second half of Grey’s Anatomy, Heroes Reborn, and Bones. Life in Pieces failed to beat out ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, which had 8.5 million viewers and a 2.3 rating this week. However, Life in Pieces had significantly better numbers than NBC’s Heroes Reborn and FOX’s Bones, which had total viewership of 3.97 million and 5.34 million as well as ratings of 1.3 and 1.1, respectively.

Overall, it seems like the timeslot shift didn’t affect Life in Pieces too much. While the numbers did decrease this week, they only decreased slightly, which leads me to believe that Life in Pieces will be able to hold their own on Thursday nights.

Now that Thursday Night Football has concluded, Life in Pieces will move to its new and regular timeslot this Thursday night at 8:30PM. Up until this point, Life in Pieces has been airing on Monday nights, which will now be taken over by Supergirl.

So far, Life in Pieces has been doing exceptionally well in total viewership and just OK in the key 18-49 demographic. While Life in Pieces’ 18-49 ratings are not fantastic, they have, for the most part, been enough to beat their competition.

Reviews for the first few episodes have been similarly mediocre. The show currently holds a 63% critic approval rating and a 51% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The reviews, much like the approval ratings, are split down the middle. While one review reads “This is one of the few broadcast-network sitcoms this season I can imagine checking in on regularly,” another review says, “The thing is, despite the structure, Life in Pieces doesn’t cover any ground that, say, Modern Family already covered better.”

Life in Pieces has already been picked up for a full first season though it is yet to be seen whether it will have longevity of comparable family sitcom, Modern Family. While the numbers for the two shows stack up pretty evenly, Life in Pieces has far more lukewarm reviews, which could prove to be its downfall.

The fifth episode of Life in Pieces aired Monday night, pulling in its highest 18-49 rating since the premiere. The show has seen steady viewership but has been struggling to capture the key 18-49 demographic. Monday night’s episode received a 2.1 18-49 rating, a .3 increase from the previous episode’s 1.8 rating. Additionally, the show saw in rise in total viewers from 7.84 to 8.47, bringing the show’s average post-premiere viewership to around 8.5 million weekly viewers.

CBS will not air a new episode of Life in Pieces next week and, in the week following, the show will be moved to Thursday nights. Considering that Life in Pieces seems to have found a steady audience, this might not be as risky a move as it would seem. CBS appears to be confident that Life in Pieces can hold its own on Thursday nights without the help of a Big Bang Theory lead-in. Additionally, TVbytheNumbers has predicted that, following The Big Bang Theory and NCIS, Life in Pieces is the most likely show to be renewed by CBS.

A still from Monday night’s episode of Life in Pieces

The fourth episode of Life in Pieces on CBS grabbed an audience of 7.84 million on Monday night, which made it the least watched episode since the show’s premiere. Life in Pieces has lost 1.32 million viewers since last week and 3.44 million since the premiere. Despite the 15% drop in total viewership, Life in Pieces only went down .1 in its 18-49 rating, going from a 1.9 last week to a 1.8 this week.

While critics still remain very lukewarm in their reviews of the show, Life in Pieces is doing pretty well among its sitcom competition. With the exception of its lead-in, The Big Bang Theory, and family-sitcom juggernaut, Modern Family, Life in Pieces has consistently shown stronger viewership than other broadcast sitcoms, both new and not-so-new.

Despite boasting strong total viewership, Life in Pieces still needs to find a way to draw in more 18-49 viewers. Several shows that have lower total viewership are showing better 18-49 ratings. ABC sitcom The Goldbergs, which airs Wednesday nights at 8:30pm, drew in 6.6 million viewers this week with a 18-49 rating of 2.1. The lack of 18-49 viewers may prove to be the biggest hurdle for Life in Pieces as the first season progresses.

In it’s third week, CBS’s new comedy Life in Pieces saw a slight rise in total viewership as compared to last weeks numbers. An additional 450,000 viewers tuned in this week, bringing the total viewership from 8.71 million to 9.16 million. Despite this viewership increase, Life in Pieces so no change in its 1.9 rating in the key 18 to 49 demographic.

The show, which chronicles the life of a family as told from a point of view of each character, has been receiving generally positive feedback from critics. The show currently holds a 63% “Fresh” approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 64/100 on Metacritic.

Life in Pieces is currently facing two major issues that ought to be resolved if they want to survive their first season. Firstly, while their total viewership is strong, their 18-49 rating is not. Life in Pieces needs to find a way to attract younger viewers. Secondly, while the series certainly hasn’t been critically panned, it also isn’t critically acclaimed. As it stands right now, Life in Pieces is a show that critics and audiences could easily forget.

Can CBS recreate the success of ABC’s Modern Family with Life in Pieces?

The second episode of CBS’s new comedy, Life in Pieces, aired this past Monday. The show saw a 23% decline in viewership from its premiere numbers going from 11.28 million viewers to 8.71 million viewers. Life in Pieces also lost a good chunk of its key demographic, going from a 2.6  rating to a 1.9 ratings in viewers 18 to 49.

This isn’t terribly bad news for the CBS show, however. Back in 2009, the Modern Family premiere episode pulled in 12.6 million viewers before dropping to 9.99 million viewers in its second week which made for a 21% decline. Modern Family just premiered its seventh season to an audience of 9.46 million, proving that a 23% dip is nothing that Life in Pieces should be too worried about.

With that being said, Modern Family’s season one numbers generally remained around the 9 million mark. If Life in Pieces is looking for the same longevity, they’re going to have to retain most of their week two audience.

A scene from Monday night’s series premiere of “Life in Pieces” starring Dianne West and James Brolin.

On Monday night, CBS debuted its newest comedy, Life in Pieces, immediately following the season premiere of The Bing Bang Theory. According to TV by the Numbers, Life in Pieces drew in 11.28 million viewers for a 2.6 rating and a 9% share in the 18-49 demographic. Life in Pieces retained a good portion of The Big Bang Theory’s audience of 18.20 million for overall strong premiere numbers.

Life in Pieces was only completely outperformed by one of its competitors. The season premiere of The Voice pulled in 12.37 million viewers for an 18-49 rating of 3.5 and 11% share. On ABC, the second week of Dancing with the Stars didn’t fair very well in the 18-49 demographic with a 1.8 rating and 6% share, even though it pulled in 11.46 million viewers. Life in Pieces completely outperformed the season two premiere of Gotham on FOX, which had 4.57 million viewers and a 1.6 rating and 5% share among 18-49 viewers.

Early reviews of Life in Pieces have been mostly favorable, so it will be interesting to see how much of the audience will return next week for episode two.