Ratings: ‘Golden Boy’ has so-so premiere; ‘Cult,’ ‘Body of Proof’ steady

CBS clearly realized with “The Job” that Friday night is no place to launch a new show anymore, so with that in mind they made the smart decision to trying and launch their new police drama “Golden Boy” on Tuesday following their two successful “NCIS” franchises. So was this a smart move? Sure, but we’re not sure the ratings are going to be too great after the show moves to its normal timeslot.

The “Golden Boy” premiere did well in drawing a 1.8 rating and over 10 million viewers, and if it does these sort of numbers on Friday, CBS will throw their hands in the air and renew the show without a shadow of a doubt. However, it’s sure to drop big without the massive “NCIS: Los Angeles” lead-in, even if it has the benefit of lesser competition when it comes to procedural dramas. (The magic number of it is probably around a 1.5.)

As for monitoring some other low-rated shows, the good news is that “Cult” (0.3), “Smash” (0.9), and “Body of Proof” (1.2) all managed to stay even with what they brought in last week. We don’t imagine any of them being renewed, but we honestly hate cancellations as much as we try to sensationalize it as a TV page: these people work hard to make these shows successful, and they at least deserve an opportunity to have the fruits of their labor play out for as large of an audience as possible. We’re the saddest honestly about “Cult,” mostly because this is a show with promise that just didn’t have the marketing campaign behind it that it needed.

The biggest surprise of the night to us? “Celebrity Wife Swap” somehow drew a 2.4 rating, which is probably something that Kate Gosselin will use as proof that she still draws ratings after all these years.

Photo: The CW