Accused Cliffhanger Resolution Cut Off in 13 Markets — Fox Affiliate Group Nexstar Cops to 'Technical Issue'

As the premiere of Fox’s legal anthology Accused neared its end, the verdict was in — but due to a technical glitch, viewers in 13 markets apparently didn’t get to hear it.

As reported by our sister site Deadline, most of the final three minutes of Accused‘s Sunday night premiere (which was handed a primo, post-NFL playoffs time slot) was preempted by local commercials in 13 markets (or about 8 percent of the country) including Cleveland, St. Louis, Indianapolis, San Diego, Lexington and Honolulu.

Viewers in those 13 markets were returned to the program for only its few final seconds.

“We had a technical issue affecting a small number of our Fox stations,” Nexstar, the affiliate group that airs the affected markets, said in a statement to Deadline. “It has been addressed and we have taken steps to make sure the issue doesn’t occur again.”

During the critical, preempted two-and-a-half minute stretch — SPOILER ALERT? — the judge ruled that the defendant’s actions were “negligent but not criminal,” and as such said doctor was remanded into their own custody. Or, you can find/watch the conclusion of the episode here on Hulu.

Fox’s Sunday evening coverage of the aforementioned NFL divisional playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys averaged 34.4 million total viewers and a 9.1 demo rating from 7 to 10 pm ET. Leading out of that, Accused retained 8.4 million and a 2.0, making it the top-rated and most-watched scripted broadcast debut in three years (since Fox’s own 9-1-1: Lone Star) and the highest-rated scripted telecast of the 2022-23 season — across broadcast and cable, even besting Yellowstone’s Season 5 premiere.

Episode 2 of Accused airs tonight in its regular Tuesdays-at-9/8c time slot, guest-stars The Blacklist‘s Megan Boone, Locke & Key‘s Aaron Ashmore and Killing It‘s Stephanie Nogueras, and was directed by Marlee Matlin.

Want scoop on Accused, or for any other show? Email [email protected] and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.

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