Ratings: MacGyver, The Blacklist post slight gains; Hawaii Five-0 tops

The Blacklist logo any season

While last night wasn’t the most eventful Friday in all of TV, there was still a good bit on the air — which, in turn, gives us a good bit to discuss here!

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All in all, the majority of the news that we’ve got to share today is of the pleasant variety. Take, for example, The Blacklist and MacGyver both gaining in demo viewers and the 18-49 demographic. While their demo ratings in a 0.6 and a 0.8, respectively, don’t necessarily show all of their progress, it is very much there and also worth celebrating if you’re a fan of either show. We’ve actually been somewhat impressed with the performance of The Blacklist this season — it’s improved this timeslot for the majority of its run so far, and it’s also performed fairly solidly for a show that is airing against Hawaii Five-0, which has a similar demographic. (Hawaii Five-0 won the night in viewers.)

Meanwhile, MacGyver has shown that there’s very little impact being made on the show from the headlines surrounding George Eads’ upcoming exit from the series. Granted, that shouldn’t be a shock, especially when it comes to CBS shows. We’ve come to realize over time that there is very little correlation between the ratings of one of these shows and news items away from it. For most of these series, what viewers are just looking for is an escape from the real world; they’re not going to necessarily be all that preoccupied with some of the news that is out there on it going into a new episode. They just want to be entertained.

Other things to know

Blindspot has also been helped by The Blacklist being on the air, as it hovered around a 0.6 rating last night. Meanwhile, Last Man Standing, The Cool Kids, and Blue Bloods are among the shows that were not on the air last night — the absence of the Fox comedies may have helped in the performance of Blindspot and MacGyver, but we don’t think that there is any other larger, notable impact present here.

The unfortunate thing is that there’s going to be very little ratings-wise to even write about next week, as the majority of the primetime shows out there will be in repeats leading to the start of February sweeps.

What do you think about the ratings from this week’s primetime lineup? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and stay tuned for some other news.

Photo: NBC

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