ABC's "Off the Map" premieres soft

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - U.S. network ABC's new medical drama "Off the Map" didn't premiere as strong as expected, due to President Obama's Arizona Memorial speech from 8:39-9:20 p.m. ET that caused last-minute schedule changes and pre-emptions.

Shonda Rhimes and Jenna Bans' new series at 10 p.m. drew roughly 7.6 million viewers with a 2.3 rating in the adults 18-49 demo.

ABC has decided to pre-empt Thursday's "Private Practice" and re-air the "Off the Map" premiere in its place, giving the rookie series a rich lead-in with a new "Grey's Anatomy."

Even though the numbers weren't great, ABC was up 55% in total viewers and up 32% in young adults with "Off the Map" compared to last year. The net still won the night in total viewers (9 million) and the key demo (2.9/8).

NBC won the hour at 10 p.m. with a new "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (8.4 million, 2.5/7), down 14% from its two-hour telecast last week.

CBS aired "Live to Dance" following the speech at 10:20 p.m. on the East Coast, which drew 6.7 million and was down in the demo (1.5/4). An original episode of "The Defenders" (6.8 million, 1.5/5) followed at 11:20 p.m. At 8 p.m., the network ran a "Big Bang Theory" (5.8 million, 1.5/4) repeat.

At 8 p.m., an original "The Middle" (10.5 million, 3.1/9) hit a series high in total viewers and the demo, up 11%. The network decided to pre-empt "Cougar Town," airing a "Modern Family" repeat (4.2/11) instead. (On the East Coast, it aired at 9:51 p.m.)

Fox pre-empted the two-hour "Human Target," deciding instead to air "Raising Hope" (3 million, 0.9/3) and "Kitchen Nightmares" (0.7/2), which began at 9:24 p.m.

The CW ran repeats of "Nikita" (2 million, 0.6, 2) and "Hellcats" (1.4 million, 0.4/1)

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)