‘Matlock’ Just Hit a Major Ratings High as It Wraps Up Season 1

Matlock has officially wrapped its freshman season with a bang, securing its place as television’s top new series and the second most-watched broadcast show overall. The legal drama, starring Academy Award winner Kathy Bates, was a brilliant hit with viewers across both CBS and Paramount+, drawing an impressive 17 million viewers on average across platforms in Live+35 ratings, according to Nielsen.

The irrepressible and still-formidable Kathy Bates, has done more than dominate this television season, though. It’s even managed to shock audiences with a significant plot twist introduced in the pilot. which took the show from a simple gender swapped reboot of the 1980s legal drama, into an immensely intelligent deep dive into the themes of power, justice, and society’s treatment of older women.

The two-hour season finale, which aired Thursday, April 17 from 9:00–11:00 PM, pulled in 5.6 million live viewers, making it the #1 primetime broadcast of the night. The show consistently dominated its 9 PM Thursday timeslot, a timeslot that traditionally has been reserved for powerhouse series, and it seems like this is no exception. And even with the advent of streaming and watching on demand, Matlock is still a smash hit. Matlock delivered 9.67 million viewers in Live+7 ratings through April 3 — a 53% increase over the previous year’s programming in the same time period.

What Is ‘Matlock’ About?

At first glance, Madeline “Matty” Matlock appears to be a down-on-her-luck older woman re-entering the workforce to try and change her fortunes. But it’s later revealed within the course of the pilot that she’s actually Madeline Kingston — a wealthy woman with a hidden agenda, motivated by a deeply personal tragedy. Disguising her identity, Matty embeds herself in a high-powered law firm with the goal of taking down that nemesis to us all, Big Pharma, whom she holds responsible for her daughter’s death.

What makes the show so good is how it takes society’s preconceived notions about older women and basically weaponizes them, in the process turning them into a powerful storytelling tool. Bates is joined by Skye P. Marshall as Olympia, a savvy lawyer at her firm; Jason Ritter as Julian, a junior partner at the firm; Leah Lewis as Sarah, a legal assistant; and David Del Rio as Billy, a tech-savvy investigator who works alongside Maddy.