Ratings: ‘Big Brother 17’ steady in second show; ‘Mistresses’ season 3, ‘Under the Dome’ drop

Thursday was not a good day to be a network TV show, unless of course you are “Big Brother.” In that case, you have to be feeling pretty good about yourself right now. The second episode of season 17 kept the entirety of its demo audience compared to the preliminary ratings yesterday, and posted a solid 2.0 in the 18-49 demographic. The premiere episode did add a tenth in the finals to finish with a 2.1, and it is possible in theory that this episode will do the same exact thing.

Now, let’s get to all of the bad news. “Under the Dome” started off season 3 with a 1.3 rating, which is down almost 40% from where it was for its season 2 premiere, which is when it aired on a Monday night. This is continuing a bad summer trend for shows this year; when “Celebrity Family Feud” is the biggest hit, something is indeed off.

Elsewhere, “Mistresses” fell to a 0.7 rating that is down from the 0.9 the show drew last week, while “Hannibal” on NBC plummeted all the way down to a 0.4. It’s a good thing that “Aquarius” was renewed, given that its 0.6 rating marks a new series low for it. Granted, it does have the benefit of being available for internet viewing in its entirety already. No other show really has that.

What do the networks need to do to find another summer smash? They really need a great new property, an interesting cast, and something that is worth their time to commit to. Other than “Big Brother,” the proper is that the majority of the other network summer series have been inconsistent. “Mistresses” is fun but is not for everyone, and “Under the Dome” season 2 was a letdown.

We will have more ratings updates as they start to come out, so stay tuned!