ABC’s ‘High Potential’ Hits Series Best in Viewers Two Weeks in a Row (Exclusive)

The first High Potential episode of 2025 delivered the show’s biggest audience of the season. The record lasted exactly one week.

The ABC drama’s Jan. 14 episode set a series high in total viewers for the second straight week. High Potential also isn’t alone in performing well for the network: Fellow Tuesday dramas Will Trent and The Rookie have also put up strong ratings numbers since their Jan. 7 premieres.

High Potential (which was renewed for a second season this week) brought in 13.19 million cross-platform viewers over seven days for the Jan. 14 episode, along with a 2.44 rating (equivalent to about 3.27 million people) in the key ad-sales demographic of adults 18-49. Those numbers are both series highs so far, edging out the previous week’s marks of 12.9 million viewers and a 2.43 demo rating.

In both the cross-platform measurement and Nielsen’s seven-day linear ratings (9.14 million viewers), High Potential drew the largest audience for an ABC drama in more than four years, since a pair of Grey’s Anatomy episodes in the fall of 2020. About 31 percent (4.05 million viewers) of the episode’s total audience came via streaming on Hulu or Hulu on Disney+ — but those viewers skewed much younger than the on-air audience. More than two-thirds of the 18-49 viewers (a 1.66 rating, or about 2.22 million people) watched via streaming.

Will Trent’s second episode of the season clocked in at 9.75 million viewers across all platforms, tying the Jan. 7 premiere’s series high. It also grew a little among adults 18-49, earning a 1.23 rating (vs. 1.19 a week earlier) for the show’s best mark since January 2023. The show’s streaming performance (1.9 million viewers) was also its best so far.

At 10 p.m., The Rookie scored 9.33 million viewers and a 1.91 demo rating, beating its season seven premiere in viewers (9.16 million) — and hitting a nearly two-year high — and nearly matching the premiere’s 18-49 delivery (1.93) over seven days. About 3.17 million peopled streamed the episode, just over a third of the total audience.