Ratings: ‘NCIS,’ ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ dominate with crossover over ‘Chicago Fire,’ ‘Chicago Med’

In the battle of the crossovers on Tuesday night, we should have known to not underestimate the power of “NCIS” still, even thirteen years into its run.

The winners – Maybe it was because of the crossover, or maybe it was because of the news breaking about Michael Weatherly’s departure. Either way, “NCIS” last night drew a season-high 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Meanwhile, “NCIS: New Orleans” easily set a new high itself for the season with a 2.4. You can easily attribute its success to the two-part event, which brought over some cast members from the flagship and told a story regarding Abby’s brother Luca. This has been a great week for CBS in general in the ratings; if you recall, “NCIS: Los Angeles” also posted a season high Monday, and “Supergirl” had its best ratings since November.

Elsewhere, “Chicago Fire” (1.8) and “Chicago Med” (1.9) probably are not crying many tears for their own crossover. Without “The Voice” as a lead-in, these are still very solid ratings, even if they are down from most-recent episodes. Having the two-part “NCIS” crossover probably hurt the former show especially.

The losers – This is not the age of the comedy. “New Girl” premiered to a 1.4, which sadly topped all of Fox’s lineup by a steady margin. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” fell to a 1.2 in its Tuesday debut, while “Grandfathered” (1.0) and “The Grinder” (0.8) were still low. Both of these first-year shows improved on recent ratings, but improving to a 0.8 is not something to celebrate.

Also, “Shark Tank” (1.2) proved that it has no business airing new episodes on Tuesday night, though we could have told you that already. The same goes for “Beyond the Tank” (1.1), which is thankfully moving to a more friendly timeslot on Thursdays after this.