‘Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Ratings Hit Season Low In Fall Finale

One thing about last night’s primetime – it was full of Taylor Swift. The music superstar was on Fox’s American Country Awards (1.4/4) with a taped speech from Australia, where she is on tour. She was also on CBS’ The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (3.4/10), the headline performer amid the winged lingerie models. Although the 10 PM VSFS was the top-rated show of the night (it actually took place November 13 in NYC), it saw a 6% slip from its December 4, 2012 show to hit its lowest result since 2010. The runway show’s 9.71 million viewers Tuesday was its third-best audience ever after the 10.50 million of its debut in 2002 and 10.39 million in 2011. Before the models, CBS had NCIS (2.8/8) and NCIS: LA (2.4/6). Back after two weeks, the former dipped 7% from its last original November 19 to tie a season low, while the latter was even with its most recent new show November 26 to tie a series low. Still, with 18.83 million total viewers, NCIS was the most-watched show of the night by far. NCIS: LA was the second-most-watched show in primetime with 14.71 million viewers. With a 2.8/8 rating, CBS won the night in the key demo and in total viewers with 14.42 million.

ABC’s Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2.0/6) headed into its winter break last night. With the prerequisite cliffhanger, last night’s midseason finale was down a hard 23% from its last original two weeks ago. That’s a season low for the freshman secret agent show, which has had a roller-coaster ratings ride since its debut. Tuesday was a better night for new comedies The Goldbergs (1.7/5) and Trophy Wife (1.2/3), which were up 21% and 9, respectively, from last week’s low and low tie. In the second week of a short stint, What Would You Do? (0.9/3) was down 10% from its December 3 episode to a series low.

The two-hour ACA took over Fox’s schedule last night and with wins by Florida Georgia and Blake Shelton among others and performances by Lady Antebellum, Sheryl Crow and Brad Paisley to name a few, it delivered again. The fourth year of the fan-decided awards show was even with last year’s broadcast.

NBC’s The Voice (3.1/8) culled its latest round contestants down to a final trio. Also featuring appearances from Season 3 and Season 4’s winners, Tuesday’s one-hour semifinal results show saw a 9% slip from last week. The Voice’s lead-in The Biggest Loser (1.9/6) was also down, 10% from December 3. Ending the night for NBC and with its last original show of the year, Chicago Fire (2.2/6) took a slight 4% downward turn. The firefighting drama however did set a series viewership record with 9.3 million tuning in.