Ratings: ‘State of Affairs,’ ‘Sleepy Hollow’ fall finale down; could it change?

Last night’s full ratings landscape is still a difficult one for us to piece together completely, and for a variety of different reasons.

First and foremost, you have to remember that there were NFL preemptions on many major networks, and to add to the chaos, there were also many interruptions on different affiliates for coverage of the Ferguson indictment verdict. Ultimately, we expect some adjustments in the finals, but we have a hard time imagining that they are going to be for the better for many shows.

Take, for example, “State of Affairs,” which really has to hope that it keeps its entire preliminary 18-49 rating of 1.7. It’s going to be difficult for it, given that it some markets it aired past primetime at least in part. If the rating does go down, maybe it’ll tick up slightly next week without all of the other things going on. Even with that being said, this is still a disappointing rating for a show airing after “The Voice.”

Meanwhile, you can probably also expect adjustments for “Sleepy Hollow” (1.4), “Castle” (2.0), and “NCIS: Los Angeles” (1.5) that will probably make their overall performance even less rosy when the finals are unveiled a little later today. These three shows at least all have devoted followings, and we know for sure that the first two are not going anywhere. Even with “NCIS: Los Angeles,” we wouldn’t be shocked if it is renewed, and then moved to Fridays in the place of one of the shows there. We feel like the biggest reason for its struggle in the timeslot is simply similar competition.