‘The Blacklist’ sets yet another DVR record, even with total live viewers decreasing

While “The Blacklist,” like most other shows on TV these days, is losing a little bit of its audience over time, at least James Spader and company have found a way to really make that DVR audience stick around. This is a show that is at a far better position now than “Revolution” was at this point last year, and really could have a huge audience staying put for next year and soldier through what is likely to be a lengthy hiatus for it.

The record that was smashed for the show this week, once again is the number of total viewers who watched the show in the three days following the broadcast. In total, the series has gained 5.427 million viewers from the time it aired Monday to three days afterwards on Thursday. The show already held the record for the biggest live+3 gain ever in total viewers, but it continues to break it.

In the key 18-49 demographic, the news is just about as good in that the show nearly gained a full 2.0 rating, which is more than the live viewer totals for a good majority of NBC’s shows these days. (Heck, this is a bigger total than anything that they have that airs from Wednesday until Friday.) This episode now stands over a 4.8 rating, which is enormously impressive and gives the network the sort of tentpole show that they can built around. Do we think that it is being helped out pretty dramatically by “The Voice”? Sure, but it doesn’t feel like it is being propped up on the same level that “Revolution,” a far inferior show in terms of quality, was.

“The Blacklist” has a few more episodes left this fall until the hiatus begins, and while NBC has yet to announce it, we assume that the show is probably not going to be airing installments apart from “The Voice,” and will likely return with it a little later in the spring. Based on what we saw happen with “Go On” and “The New Normal” last January, it really feels like that is the smarter move unless they really feel like another one of their shows could benefit from the lead-in.

Photo: NBC