TNT’s ‘Men of a Certain Age’ has solid opening

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The premiere of TNT’s middle-age angst drama ‘Men of a Certain Age’ hit a nerve, drawing a strong 5.4 million viewers to its Monday night premiere.

That’s good news for the Time Warner-owned cable network. It recently canceled the drama ‘Raising the Bar,’ and another one of its dramas, ‘Saving Grace’ is also ending.

‘Men of a Certain Age,’ which stars Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula, is something of a departure for the cable channel. It is a softer, more emotional drama; most of TNT’s success has come from from police shows such as ‘The Closer’ and ‘Dark Blue.’ The show, which has gotten mostly positive reviews, is somewhat dark, and while it’s about men, it hit its loudest note with women, which made up the bulk of the audience. According to Nielsen, 63% of the adults 18-49 and 25-54 that tuned into ‘Men of a Certain Age’ were women.

Of course, ‘Men of a Certain Age’ also got help from a strong lead-in -- ‘The Closer’ -- which had 6.2 million viewers.

TNT also used the premiere to start a heavy promotional push for ‘Southland,’ the John Wells drama that TNT picked up after NBC dropped it earlier this fall. TNT will be airing several new episodes of ‘Southland,’ and if the show performs, would likely order more.
TNT is coming off a tough fall, but so far this year its audience it has shown slight growth in viewers and key demographics.

-- Joe Flint