Ratings: ‘MacGyver’ and ‘The Exorcist’ fall; ‘Blue Bloods’ and ‘Hawaii Five-0’ solid

The ratings for the second Friday of the fall season are in, and for the most part, we’d say that they were predictable. Some new shows fell hard after some mixed reviews, while some returning shows did their best to keep some retention and stability.

The good news – “Blue Bloods” managed to keep its entire 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic that it had during the premiere. This shouldn’t be too shocking, mostly because the numbers for this show rarely ever fluctuate much despite a relative lack of promotion. Meanwhile, with a 1.3 rating “Hawaii Five-0” is up big versus this time last season, which suggests to us that this show is really benefiting very much from having a different lead-in. Technically, the series is down versus the premiere, but we’re trying to look more at the big picture here.

The bad news – While “MacGyver” did win the night with a 1.4 rating that is still up versus “The Amazing Race” in this spot last year, at the end of the day a decrease is still a decrease and has to be noted (especially since it dropped over 15%). Still, this is better than Fox’s new version of “The Exorcist,” which dropped down to a 0.7 after just one week. Think of this as yet another sobering reminder of how terrible of a fall we’re seeing Fox have so far. Other than “Empire” and maybe “Lethal Weapon,” are they happy with any of their numbers?

On the comedy front, “Last Man Standing” and “Dr. Ken” dropped to a 1.0 and 0.8 rating. Neither number is terrible for either show, but we are seeing slow erosion happen here over time.

Photo: CBS