The Wednesday TV ratings for March 4th are in, here are some of the highlights:

  • Let's start with Empire, of course. The Fox series blew through another benchmark last night at 9 p.m., notching an incredible 5.7 rating in the key 18-49 demo, and 14.19 million viewers.
  • That viewership number is high (and growing daily -- Fox reports there are more than 100,000 new views of the pilot on streaming services daily), though it's not necessarily groundbreaking. That rating, on the other hand, sure is. The show is up 6 percent just from last week, making it its eighth straight week of gains, and the highest rated episode of any regular broadcast drama since an episode of Grey's Anatomy in 2009. Shazam!
  • Though American Idol on Fox at 8 p.m. took a 22 percent dip from last week, down to 2.1 and 8.75 million viewers (coming in third for that hour), that combo with Empire still helped Fox win the night both in the key demo and with viewers overall.
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    The series premiere of CBS's CSI: Cyber notched an fair 1.8 rating, but 10.3 million viewers (as CBS tends to do). It wasn't as high as the premiere of Stalker, but it's already an improvement over Stalker's regular timeslot ratings.
  • Most CW shows have been on a mini-hiatus this week, but The 100 was back with an all-new episode at 9 p.m., where it stayed steady with a 0.5 rating and 1.48 million viewers.
  • As for ABC comedies, The Middle at 8 p.m. (2.2, 8.3 million viewers) was up 10 percent, while The Goldbergs at 8:30 p.m. (2.5, 7.9 million) stayed steady, as did Modern Family at 9 p.m. (3.4, 9.57 million). Black-ish at 9:30 p.m. was up 5 percent to 2.3 and 6.75 million viewers.
  • Also on ABC, Nashville seems to be making something of a comeback at 10 p.m., where it notched a 1.4 and 5.28 million viewers.