NBC can exhale — its first night of all-new fall programming did OK. At 8 PM, the second episode of The Voice posted a 3.9/12 in adults 18-49. That was down a modest 7% from the Monday season premiere, which aired from 8-10 PM, while last night’s episode ran in the 8 PM hour where HUT levels are lower. (Though the show faced lesser competition last night.) There is no suitable prior-season comparison as this is the first time The Voice has expanded into multiple nights a week during the higher-rated blind auditions stage. The singing competition delivered NBC’s best non-sports rating in the time period since January 5, 2011.
At 9 PM, the time-period premiere of the new Matthew Perry comedy Go On (3.4/9, 9.6 million) marked NBC’s highest-rated comedy premiere since Outsourced in 18-49 and My Name Is Earl in total viewers. It was down 39% from the Go On preview during the Olympics as well as down 8% from the debut of Perry’s most recent series, the short-lived ABC comedy Mr. Sunshine, and Up All Night‘s preview behind America’s Got Talent last year.
At 9:30 PM, the time-slot debut of fellow new comedy The New Normal (2.5/7) was even with the show’s preview after The Voice on Monday. It retained an 74% of its Go On lead-in. NBC easily won the night in 18-49 but its demo ratings declined steadily from 9-11 PM, hitting a low note with the season premiere of Parenthood (1.9/5) at 10 PM. The heavily DVR-ed dramedy, featuring new recurring guest star Ray Romano, was down 14% from last season’s debut, which followed America’s Got Talent, for its lowest-rated opener. The premiere tied Parenthood‘s most recent season finale.
Elsewhere, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance (1.5/4) was flat with last week. ABC and CBS aired reruns.
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