TNT launched a new Monday last night with the return of Closer spinoff Major Crimes and the debut of King & Maxwell. Major Crimes, predictably dipping from its massive post-Closer series premiere, pulled in just north of 5 million viewers.
Shy of the 7.2 million viewers who tuned into the launch, Major Crimes was generally in line with its freshman average and saw boosts among adults 18-49. Averaging 1.5 million adults 25-54 over the hour, Major Crimes was up 6 percent with 18-49-ers to 1.2 million.
Outpacing winter and spring efforts, as well as Sunday's return of Falling Skies, Major Crimes currently ranks as the network's top scripted outing for the year.
At 10 p.m., TNT launched Jon Tenney and Rebecca Romijn starrer King & Maxwell. And though the series pulled a very respectable 3.5 million viewers, it does not rank high in the cable network's roster of big summer launches.
Last year's comparable premiere, Perception, opened in the hour to 5.6 million viewers -- and that was after a 6.1 million lead-in from The Closer.
Still one of the year's top five scripted launches in basic cable, King & Maxwell averaged 1 million adults 25-54 and 820,000 adults 18-49.
