Ratings: ‘This Is Us’ retains most of audience; ‘Bull,’ ‘Scream Queens,’ ‘Agents of SHIELD’ fall

We expected a whole chorus of drops in the ratings for Tuesday night. It’s fairly common following premiere week, and even more common for new shows. To us, any new show that loses less than 10% of its premiere audience should feel really good, and that is the curve we’re grading on for this particular ratings article

The good news – It keeps coming for “This Is Us” on NBC. In its second week on the air, the ensemble drama drew a 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic, a decline of around 9% from the premiere. This is still a great rating, and it may end up being the #1 new show of the season.

Elsewhere, most of the good news is for returning shows. “NCIS: New Orleans” actually improved to a 1.5 in its second airing of the season, which further suggests that CBS made the right move in shifting this show back to what was previously a troublesome timeslot for them. “The Voice” (3.2), “NCIS” (2.1), and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (1.0) all posted relatively minor declines, and with that in mind you gotta consider all of them success stories for week 2.

The bad news – Maybe “Bull” is not meant to be a smash hit equal to Michael Weatherly’s former show in “NCIS.” The second episode drew a 1.9, a drop of 14% from the premiere. That’s not terrible, but we wanted it to stay over 2.0 for at least a few weeks. It’s still better off than “Scream Queens,” which dropped all the way down to a 0.8 rating, or “Agents of SHIELD” also getting a 0.9.

Also, proving further that viewers hate filler, a two-hour “Dancing with the Stars” mustered a 1.4 rating on the night.