Ratings: NBC’s ‘Dracula’ bites it in second week, ‘Grimm’ falls, ‘The Carrie Diaries’ steady

Whenever you have a new series, there is one week in particular that you dread like it is a vampire creeping up on you to inevitably suck your blood: The one immediately following the pilot. This is when you really get an idea if people actually like your show or not, since they are making a real investment to come back and watch you again.

For “Dracula,” this is an even bigger test considering that people are going through quite a bit in order to watch this show in the first place. Remember that it is a show that is airing late on Friday nights when most are either out with their friends, at the movies, or relaxing with loved ones. TV is not always a first choice for Friday night entertainment. So to get a 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic last week was excellent. Scoring a 1.3 rating this week? Not so much. If the numbers fall a little more next week, you can’t really look at this anymore as a show that will be picked up for another season. It lost some steam from its lead-in “Grimm” (which also fell to a 1.5 rating), and this did not have much to go on following a vampire-themed special that bombed, and really should have aired before Halloween.

What NBC should really be doing here is putting some sort of procedural, whether it be “Law & Order: SVU” or the upcoming “Chicago PD,” at 8:00 on Fridays. This means that there will be something on to start the night that will draw some older viewers staying in on Friday, and it is not so dependent on people being around to watch every week.

One thing that we are going to be very interested in keeping track of the rest of the season are the numbers for “The Carrie Diaries,” and if there is any way that it can actually stick around long enough to be renewed for a third season. The big surprise, at least to us, was seeing the numbers actually improve slightly in total viewers this week as they got closer to a million … but the 0.3 rating in the demo was the same. We personally feel like if the show can keep this number, or at least increase it to a 0.4 at times, it has a shot of coming back just based on the night it airs. If it can draw okay figures on TV’s worst night, especially on par with a show like “Beauty and the Beast” on Mondays, it at least has a chance.

Photo: NBC