How to Get Away with Murder is Beating Scandal in the Ratings

How to Get Away with Murder is beating Scandal and Kerry Washington’s quivering bottom lip in ratings. ABC’s Shondaland strategy — diverse casts, inappropriate husbands (with dick pics!), confused faces (Wes, he never knows what’s going on!) and good wigs (Viola, we see you!) — is working.

Both How to Get Away with Murder and Black-ish are cruising through strong season openers on ABC, with the former also beating out NBC’s The Blacklist as the highest-rated drama on the small screen. The legal thriller is “averaging a 5.7 rating among adults 18-49 through three weeks of Live+7 numbers,” according to Deadline.

Elsewhere CW’s Jane the Virgin is swimming in positive reviews and CBS’s Scorpion, starring Brit actor Elyes Gabel (boyfriend of Katherine McPhee), is the second-highest rated new series after How to Get Away with Murder.

Hey TV execs, ABC’s bet on smart stories surrounding African American characters this season is pretty lucrative for them. How about giving more writers and creators of color a chance and get some of that money? (You too OWN; everything can’t be written or created by Tyler Perry.)