Ratings: ‘New Girl’ buoyed by Nick and Jess; ‘Go On’ and ‘The New Normal’ fall

As much as it pains us to say it, Fox may have made the right decision in canceling “Ben and Kate” based on the numbers that are coming out now. Without the anemic lead-in for the first time all season, “New Girl” recovered with its best numbers that the show has had in 2013 thus far.

For an episode that (spoiled alert!) featured the big kiss between Nick and Jess, the comedy scored a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic that was enough to make it the top program on the night for any network not named CBS. Meanwhile, it also helped “The Mindy Project” improve its own rating to a 1.7. We could feasibly see both of these shows and “Raising Hope” (1.6) returning for another season, mostly because they all do perform pretty well with DVR viewing.

Meanwhile, we just can’t say the same for some of the comedies over on NBC. “Go On” (1.2) actually tied with “Happy Endings” on the night, and “The New Normal” (1.1) was lower than both of them. Even though Ryan Murphy may have devoted fans, we see this for sure as the first one of his three shows on the air to end up getting the ax by the end of the season. It and “Go On” just cannot function without “The Voice,” and these ratings are so poor that they make the Thursday-night comedy block look stronger.

While it fared decently in the ratings, we are also currently wondering just what ABC was thinking in putting a “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” repeat right in the middle of their primetime lineup this week. It was a placeholder, obviously, but a pretty strange one.

Are you happy to see the “New Girl” ratings rise for such a big episode? If you want to read our full review of what transpired, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Fox