Ratings: ‘The Voice’ helps ‘The New Normal’ finale; ‘Golden Boy’ down without lead-in

The months of March and April are definitely a curious time when it comes to evaluating the true nature of shows. Are people really watching them, or just leaving on their TVs after watching something that came on before? Look at this past fall, when “Go On” and “The New Normal” were drawing ratings that would easily get them both second-season renewals; then, the two fell sharply the moment that they didn’t have “The Voice” propping them up.

Well, “The New Normal” had “The Voice” helping it out again Tuesday … and it thus drew some of its best numbers since early in the season. Overall, the comedy’s season (and possibly series) finale brought in a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic for the first part of its finale, and a 1.4 for its conclusion. (We imagine that the first half-hour will be adjusted down to a 1.8 thanks to an overrun.) This certainly helps the odds of the Ryan Murphy show coming back, but it is still probably unlikely given that NBC would like to find a show that could do well without the singing competition’s help. After all, “The Voice” drew a 4.3, and a 1.9 is pretty terrible retention.

In going along this same route, “Golden Boy” dropped on CBS to a 1.3 without the help of the “NCIS” franchises propping it up this week. This show may have an outside shot of returning, but it’s ultimately doubtful given that the network has so few spots for new shows, and they would probably rather take a gamble here and try to find a hit.

There’s one other thing that we find very funny right now: “Dancing with the Stars” 16 (2.2) is drawing just as good or better ratings for its results show than it is its two-hour performance shows on Monday. Isn’t this a sign that “The Voice” is eating up their live audience Monday night? If we were them, we’d consider moving the show permanently to Tuesdays for two hours, and then either having the results show on Wednesdays (against Fox’s dying singing competitions) or scrapping it altogether.

Do you think that the “Voice” lead-in could be used for a better show? If you want to read our full review of the “New Normal” finale, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: CBS