Ratings: ‘The Wall’ rises; ‘Chicago Fire’ – ‘PD’ crossover solid; ‘NCIS’ steady

Do we have the first certified new hit of 2017 with “The Wall“? We’re certainly starting to think that after looking at the ratings for Tuesday night’s lineup.

The Chris Hardwick-hosted game show drew a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic for the first airing in its official timeslot, which is an increase of more than 40% of what it drew following “The Celebrity Apprentice.” It almost tied “NCIS” on CBS for the night in the metric, and this bodes EXTREMELY well for the future of the show. It also could mark an important step forward in primetime game shows. While ABC has been working in this genre especially over the past couple of years, most of their successful shows have been remakes of older hits. This is one of the few occasions in which an original show has come out and drawn these kind of numbers.

As for the reasons why, a lot of it is due to a concept that is fairly easy to understand, the presence of LeBron James as executive producer, and then also a funny, qualified host in Hardwick who already has a substantial following.

In other news on NBC, “Chicago Fire” (1.6) and “Chicago PD” (1.7) each also performed extremely well in their own timeslot debuts, which could present a good argument for airing them on the same night in the future — or at least pairing two parts of the “One Chicago” crossover together.

As for some other ratings news on the night…

CBS – “NCIS” (1.8) managed to stay steady versus its most-recent airing, while both “Bull” (1.5) and “NCIS: New Orleans” (1.2) stayed either at or reasonably close to some of the other numbers that they’ve drawn recently.

Fox – Is there a case for switching out “New Girl” and “The Mick” on the night? We wonder, given that the latter scored a 1.3 in the 18-49 demographic compared to a 1.1 for “New Girl” on the night. Meanwhile, the final season premiere of “Bones” drew a 0.9 rating — while low, this was better than many recent “Scream Queens” episodes.

ABC – “The Middle” (1.7), “American Housewife” (1.6), “Fresh Off the Boat” (1.4), and “The Real O’Neals” (1.0) all improved versus their recent outings. It is often that we do see a rise in scripted-show ratings in January, given that it is a time in which many viewers are choosing to enjoy some warmer weather as opposed to being out in the cold.

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What did you watch on Tuesday night? Let us know in the attached comments. (Photo: NBC.)