Ratings: ‘American Ninja Warrior’ beats ‘The Bachelorette’; ‘The Island’ has okay start

“American Ninja Warrior” has become in some ways the unsung hero of the NBC summer schedule. While it does not get anywhere near the same press coverage as “The Bachelorette,” it is almost like the Gordon Ramsay series on Fox in that it seems to almost always deliver, really no matter what.

Last night, the season premiere of the show drew an impressive 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic over the course of its two hours, which is a solid lead over what the latest episode of “The Bachelorette” brought in with a 1.6. Why does this version of the show consistently get lower ratings than “The Bachelor”? The simplest answer here seems to be that viewer people watch TV in the summer versus the winter; given that the ratings were actually up versus last year when it comes to the premiere, you cannot just blame the twist that had both Kaitlyn Bristowe and Britt Nilsson billed as the “stars” of the series.

The only other notable ratings headline last night, unless you really do want to know more about the numbers for “500 Questions” on ABC, is that “The Island” drew a 1.2 rating. This series from Bear Grylls seems at least to be a perfect compliment to the “Ninja Warrior” adaptation, but we also don’t know how many more series about people surviving on an island we really need. Also, we feel like we’ve already seen most of what Grylls has to over.

We do expect at least some consistency with these shows throughout the year, or at least the two that are long-running. Viewers tend to know what they are getting into when they start watching them, and they tend to hang around for the ride.

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