Ratings: ‘The Blacklist’ huge after ‘The Voice,’ ‘Hostages’ starts low, ‘Sleepy Hollow’ holds up
The biggest story that we have to talk about today when it comes to the fall TV battle is simply one new show dominating the others in the 10:00 p.m. Eastern time slot. Not only was “The Blacklist” the winner of this showdown, but it really was not even close when you look at some of the overall numbers in the 18-49 demographic.
Specifically, “The Blacklist” drew a 3.8 rating, while “Hostages,” which was almost as good of a show in its own right, only drew a 1.8. The rating for the NBC drama was slightly lower than the 4.2 “Revolution” got last year, but when you take into account that James Spader has a much better show on his hands here, we expect it to hold on better throughout the season.
Meanwhile, the news was also good for “The Voice.” Proving that the singing-competition genre is not dead so long as your show is actually entertaining, the return of Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green drew an impressive (and slightly unexpected) 4.9 rating to lead the night. This is higher than the premiere of both of the past two cycles, and it comes a night after the show upset “The Amazing Race” in winning the Reality Competition award for the first time.
As for some other assorted news, “Sleepy Hollow” held up very well. Despite having way more competition this week, the show still drew an impressive 3.2 rating that signals to us that Ichabod Crane could have a long life ahead of him on Fox. “Bones” was hurt a little more in that its rating went down to a 1.9. You never want to see your show below a 2.0 at this point in a season.
The final thing we want to point out here is CBS learning the hard way now that “2 Broke Girls” is not going to be “Two and a Half Men” or “The Big Bang Theory.” In what was at one point a dominant timeslot for them, the show drew a solid but unspectacular 2.8 rating. Meanwhile, the premiere of Anna Faris’ “Mom” was an underwhelming 2.5. This would be a hit for NBC, but this is easily on the low end of what CBS wants for their comedies. When you consider that “How I Met Your Mother” scored a 3.6 for its hour-long premiere, they would like to see more retention there.
Finally, when was the last time that “Castle” (13.8 million) had more total viewers than “Dancing with the Stars” (13.4)? The latter show was clearly hurt the worst by “The Voice” returning.
Photo: NBC