Ratings: ‘Utopia’ premiere a letdown; ‘Big Brother 16’ still strong with Jeff – Jordan engagement

If “Big Brother” deliberately programmed Jeff and Jordan getting engaged to air against the premiere of “Utopia” on Fox, it was a brilliant move. Perhaps the most surprising bit of news to us right now is merely the fact that this show continues to be such a hit for CBS despite having a season that is so boring.

“Big Brother” drew a 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic for its episode Sunday night, which was dominated largely by these two people not even in the game. It did this despite competing against NFL football, without a significant overrun, and with the premiere of “Utopia” (which has many similarities) in mind.

Unfortunately, “Utopia” right out of the gate scored a disappointing 1.9, which is a rating that may go down in the final numbers given how it was buoyed in part by NFL football and a lengthy overrun into the 7:00 p.m. hour. We actually found the show to be an entertaining trainwreck, but we still believe putting the show against “Big Brother” was a dubious move, even if you did want the post-NFL audience to give you a helping hand. We almost would have recommended bumping “The OT” and putting it on right after the game (even though that’s not really possible).

So what happens if the “Utopia” ratings tank, and they certain will give that numbers for the show dropped well below a 1.9 by the end of its two hours? Well someone come in and kick all the “pioneers” out? If so, that may be useful entertainment as much as anything else.

What we may be learning here more than ever is that even if you have an interesting concept like “Utopia” or “The Quest,” it is extremely hard to create a new reality property in 2014.

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Photo: Fox