Supergirl Opens With Fall’s Biggest Premiere Audience

Look, up in the sky: It’s CBS’ ratings for Supergirl.

The series premiere of the action-adventure series opened strong Monday night, delivering a fall new series record of 14 million viewers and a 3.2 rating among adults 18–49.

The debut was aided by a hearty push from opener The Big Bang Theory, (15.9 million, 4.2), and plenty of marketing and buzz surrounding the show — the first female-focused costumed superhero show to hit a Big 4 broadcast network in decades.

The previous record holders this season among new shows were CBS’ Life in Pieces (11.3 million viewers) among total viewers and NBC’s procedural thriller Blindspot (3.1 rating). Supergirl could adjust to tie the Blindspot number in the demo when the nationals come in later today, but even if that happens its total audience tally will remain in first place for the fall.

After The Big Bang Theory, Supergirl was the highest-rated series on the air last night, beating shows in the demo like NBC’s Blindspot (2.2), Fox’s Minority Report (0.6) and ABC’s Dancing with the Stars (1.9).

Supergirl’s performance follows a dismal fall of largely lackluster new show premieres. Supergirl was forecasted to be a show that might break that pattern, despite last night’s pilot leaking onto BitTorrent back in May (or, perhaps, aided by the buzziness generated by viewers watching the leaked version — it’s hard to know for sure).

Either way, CBS is surely breathing a sigh of relief this morning, though a hesitant one. The big test, especially for a serialized show, is how the series holds up in the coming weeks. Recent seasons have many examples of high-concept shows that debuted big and then steadily dropped, like Fox’s Gotham and Sleepy Hollow.

Meanwhile star Melissa Benoist declared Supergirl is feminist by saying “what’s feminist about it is that it’s for everyone. She has all the same powers [Superman] does.” Here’s EW’s recap of the premiere, and definitely check out our interview with the showrurnner about the premiere and what’s to come.

This article originally appeared on EW.com