In the wake of the tragic death of Leslie Jordan on Oct. 24, viewers are rallying around his final performances. Fox‘s “Call Me Kat” saw a spike in its audience for the first episode to air following series regular Jordan’s fatal car crash with 1.4 million people tuning in to Season 3 Episode 5 on Oct. 27.
That statistic, which comes via Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data, marks a 28% jump in viewership for the Fox comedy. After the third season of “Call Me Kat” premiered with 1.2 million viewers on Sept. 29, the show’s audience steadied, with Episodes 2, 3 and 4 each bringing in 1.1 million.
Additionally, Episode 5 hit a rating of 0.3 in the adults 18-49 demographic after each preceding episode of Season 3 had a 0.2.
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Titled “Call Me Uncle Dad,” the Oct. 27 episode of “Call Me Kat” featured Jordan’s character, Phil, meeting his first onscreen love interest, a drag queen named Jalen aka Queen Dicktoria (guest star John Griffin). At the Middle C, the bar across from Kat’s (Mayim Bialik) cafe where Phil is head baker, he and Jalen bond over their love of performing, with Phil breaking out into a clog dancing routine.
Jordan was in the middle of production on Season 3 when he died. Fox confirmed that he had shot eight episodes of the season and had been set to complete Episode 9 by the end of last week.
Details about how the show will handle Jordan’s character moving forward are not yet known. Production paused after the accident, with Fox airing a short tribute to Jordan as a part of the Oct. 27 episode.
Jordan will also be featured in upcoming episodes of “The Masked Singer” and “Lego Masters,” which both air on Fox.
“Call Me Kat” is produced by That’s Wonderful Productions, Sad Clown Productions and BBC Studios’ Los Angeles production arm in association with Warner Bros. Television and Fox. Jim Patterson and Maria Ferrari serve as co-showrunners, and executive produce alongside Jim Parsons and Todd Spiewak for That’s Wonderful, Bialik for Sad Clown Productions, Angie Stephenson for BBC Studios and Miranda Hart, who created “Miranda,” the British series “Call Me Kat” is based on.