Ratings: ‘Sleepy Hollow’ makes heads roll, beats ‘Under the Dome’ finale, ‘Bones’ premiere

Who imagined that “Sleepy Hollow” would scare up numbers this big? The premiere of Fox’s new mystery-horror series, which we personally believed to be a wonderful surprise and a great deal of camp fun, got off to a great start as the first new show to pop up on the schedule.

Overall, this show won the night in the 18-49 demographic with a 3.4, which is an excellent start that far surpasses the premiere of “The Mob Doctor’ last year in this time. It also beat “The Following,” which launched in January to a 3.2 rating. If the numbers hold up reasonably close to this level, you can almost guarantee a return trip to Sleepy Hollow next year.

This was the only new show on the night to premiere, but we have to give mention to a strong start for “Dancing with the Stars” (3.3), which was ironically a lower rating than what “Jersey Shore” got during its heyday. (Sorry, Snooki.) Meanwhile, “Bones” had a decent 2.2 to kick things off for the fall, and “Under the Dome” said farewell with an impressive 2.8. For a summer show, CBS is doing cartwheels over just how successful this Stephen King adaptation did.

What we ultimately find most impressive about these numbers as a whole is that they prove that network TV is far from dead on the first night of the fall season for some channels. Then again, you also have to take a few things into account here. “The Voice” premieres next week, for example, and is going to take a big chunk presumably out of both “Sleepy Hollow” and “Dancing with the Stars.” We saw the ballroom show get off to a strong start last spring, and then “The Voice” hurt it badly the following week.

If you want to see more “Sleepy Hollow” news, click here to watch a preview for next week’s episode.

Photo: Fox