Ratings: ‘Thor: The Dark World’ epilogue helps ‘Agents of SHIELD’; Bishop – ‘NCIS’ era starts OK
The big question going into Tuesday night, at least from a ratings perspective, was just if we were going to see “Agents of SHIELD” actually have one of its first ratings increases in quite a long time with an hour that hoped to try to answer a very important question: Will spinning off a Marvel movie onto the show for an episode bring out viewers who were not active viewers from one week to the next?
The good news for the ABC series is that their episode continuing the events of “Thor: The Dark World” did at least cause a slight uptick in the numbers to a 2.3 in the 18-49 demographic, but that is only an increase of a tenth of a point from last week. Still, beggars can’t be choosers, especially when this show has been more or less in decline ever since the premiere when it comes to most important metrics. Whether or not it keeps this number is still to be seen as we move forward into December, and also the new year.
As for another show airing a big episode, “NCIS” scored a 3.0 for its first episode featuring Emily Wickersham as Ellie Bishop, and in addition to that, what matters most for the show is that the reviews of the character were mostly positive. This was a big risk introducing a character following the exit of Cote de Pablo, but what remains to us amazing about “NCIS” is how consistent the show fares over a decade into its run. While a series like “Agents of SHIELD” struggles to maintain an audience, it has a group of almost 20 million people who check in week in and week out. Even if the show skews very old, the demo is still solid enough for it to not really matter.
The other sign that “event” episodes don’t really make much of a ratings push comes from “Person of Interest,” which kept its same 2.0 rating despite airing an episode all about the end of Agent Carter.
The big winner of the night? David Blaine, whose latest 90-minute special drew a 2.5 rating, proof that there are people out there who still like watching Blaine’s unique brand of street magic.
Photo: ABC