Ratings: ‘Shark Tank’ at series high; ‘Nikita’ premiere tanks; ‘Grimm’ down

We remember back when we said that “Nikita” would probably not get renewed for another season that we were met with the white-hot fury of fans around the world. It was never that we felt that the show was poor by any means, but we just weren’t sure how The CW could justify bringing back something that was traditionally their lowest-rated second-year show on the schedule. In bringing back a show for a third season, you are almost guaranteeing that a season 4 will happen for syndication reasons; though to be honest, we are not sure that will even happen here based on what we have just seen from the “Nikita” season 3 premiere.

Overall, the Maggie Q series premiered to only a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is the smallest rating for a show on the network’s schedule this year. It does pull in some better viewing figures than “Gossip Girl,” but that show tends to also skew a little bit younger. We really can’t see the numbers improving from here, especially when “Fringe” comes back on the air again after baseball.

Elsewhere on TV, there was some bad news for another show in “Grimm,” which dropped for the second straight week down to a 1.4 rating. There are some great DVR numbers here that will keep it safe, but we have to think NBC does want at least some people to try watching this live. On the flip side, “Shark Tank” is becoming a beast. Its 2.0 rating in the demo is not only a series high, but it may only be the second time in 2012 that an original, regular episode of a series has cracked that threshold. (“Undercover Boss” was the last show to do so.)

Are you stunned that “Nikita” premiered so low, and do you think this marks the beginning of the end?