Ratings: ‘Undateable’ season 3 starts low; ‘Dr. Ken’ okay; ‘Hawaii Five-0’ rises

We give the “Undateable” cast and crew credit for working their butts of leading to the season 3 premiere on Friday night. They managed to put on a live special this week, and they are going to continue to do that the rest of the season. The biggest challenge with it, though, is as simple as the fact that they are having to do it with a fairly depressing number of viewers tuning in.

For its season 3 premiere Friday, the show mustered just a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic. The problem is that for some reason NBC paired this show up against “Last Man Standing,” which already has an established comedy following. Also, the “Undateable” audience (which is mostly within that demo) is not exactly around on Friday nights to watch it. Hopefully this number at least stays steady the rest of the season.

Meanwhile, “Dr. Ken” actually did a great job of holding onto all of its “Last Comic Standing” lead-in on its way to a 1.3. While this is a drop from the first episode, it’s still probably better than we expected it to do given some of the early ratings. We love Ken Jeong, though, so we’re happy for him and hope that the show lasts long enough to find more of its voice. If it continues with these ratings, it feels almost a lock to get a full-season order. Ratings expectations are not huge on Friday night.

As for some other highlights from Friday, “Shark Tank” (1.5) was the victor, while “Hawaii Five-0” (1.1) also rose from its most-recent airing. We’re not sure that is enough to get it another season, it is a more respectable showing.