Ratings: ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ ‘The Originals’ return steady; ‘Grimm,’ ‘Second Chance’ slide

For those of you who thought that moving to Fridays was going to be the end of the world for “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals,” it’s not! Both shows aired in their new timeslot this week, and while we’re not going to sit here and proclaim that either one of them necessarily hit things out of the park, they held up very well on a pretty competitive night.

The winners – With that, we have to classify the respective shows getting a 0.5 and a 0.4 in the 18-49 demographic as a win. If these ratings hold up the rest of the season, you have to consider them pretty close to a lock for renewal. It will mean that The CW’s Friday lineup is actually performing better than Mondays, and most of the scripted shows the network has put here have been lucky to get a 0.3 (look at “Reign” or “Hart of Dixie”).

This was a pretty weak night for most shows as a whole; the two other winners were a surging “Shark Tank” (1.7 minus “Hawaii Five-0” competition) and the first part of the one-hour “Undateable Live” finale, which tied its season-high 0.9. (It’s a great show, and if this is the end we’re going to miss it.)

The losers – It wasn’t a great night for Fox or NBC. “MasterChef Junior” (1.3) fell, and the Friday premiere of “Second Chance” (0.7) turned out to not really be that worthy of another chance after it was pushed from Wednesdays. Meanwhile, “Grimm” returned to a series-low 0.8, but strangely we still think the show has a shot at coming back for another season.

You can read some other insight on Friday’s “Vampire Diaries” in particular over here! Also, you can sign up right away to book some more TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)