Thursday’s third-season premiere of Shonda Rhymes’ juicy juggernaut drama attracted a series-high 10.5 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings.
The “Scandal” premiere, which featured fallout from the revelation of Pope’s (Washington) affair with the president (Tony Goldwyn), was up 57% in viewers and an even larger 71% in young adults compared to last fall’s opener, according to USA Today. It enjoyed its biggest growth to date out of Grey’s Anatomy (9.4 million, up 1% from last week’s two-hour premiere), topping its lead-in by 12% in viewers and 20% in young adults.
On the social-media front, Scandal scored a series-high and evening-high 712,877 tweets, up 714% from last season’s premiere and 22% from May’s season finale.
Speaking of social media, the opening episode was so good it inspired a gang of hilarious memes and Twitter responses that will have you cracking up at work. Take a look.