NCIS season 20 premiere ratings down big; what’s going on?
What in the world happened to the much-hyped crossover? The first episode drew only a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just over 5.65 million viewers, making this by far the least-watched episode in quite some time in live + same-day metrics.
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The easiest explanation for the drop here is inevitably going to be the exit of Mark Harmon and Gary Cole taking over as the new team leader; however, we’ve had this current roster since episode 5 of season 19. Maybe a lot of viewers stuck through the rest of season 19 and gave up over the summer, but we don’t think it’s that simple.
We do think that on some level, making the premiere into a crossover was a slight miscalculation. Not everyone watches both shows and even for those who do, was seeing an event like this more essential than the stories already established on each show? We do wonder that on a certain level.
There are really two big culprits with what happened to the premiere. First and foremost, remember that delayed viewing is becoming more and more commonplace. The numbers for the premiere may very well multiply through Paramount+ or people checking it out on their DVR. There’s nothing about the NCIS premiere that requires people to watch it live. Also, remember that there were two NFL games on last night, with some big-market teams including Philadelphia and Minneapolis involved. That obviously played a role, especially since last season NCIS only had to worry about one game serving as competition.
Related – Be sure to get some more news when it comes to NCIS, including more on the future
Are you surprised about the ratings for the NCIS season 20 premiere?
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This article was written by Jessica BunBun. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.