Despite the hype over Ghost Rider’s debut, and pretty favorable reviews, the ratings for “The Ghost” weren't terribly impressive. Agents of SHIELD managed just 1.1 in its key demographic, down from the 1.7 of the Season 3 premiere episode, “Laws of Nature.”
Now the Live+3 ratings for “The Ghost” are in, and boy what a difference three days can make. “The Ghost” saw a huge 82% rise in its ratings, bringing that 1.1 up to a 2. That’s the largest L+3 gain for any single episode of Agents of SHIELD ever.
“The Ghost” also saw a 61% rise in total viewers, which is also a new record for Agents of SHIELD. That brings the Agents of SHIELD Season 4 premiere’s total viewership up from 3.44 million to 5.549 million, which nearly matches the Agents of SHIELD Season 3 average viewership.
What these ratings seem to tell us is that the Agents of SHIELD faithful are willing to stick with the show, they’re just not willing to stay up past their bedtime. It will be interesting to see how the Live+7 ratings stack up to last season’s, and whether good word of mouth following Ghost Rider’s debut will draw even more viewers into Agents of SHIELD Season 4.
Hopefully if this stays up, we can get a season 5.