RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Biggest Loser’ Hits Debut Low, New ABC Comedies Down, ‘The Originals’ Up Strong
In one of the last premieres of the new season, The Biggest Loser (2.2/7) was back on NBC for Season 15 last night. The trio of trainers picked the 15 contestants for the cycle, including their first celeb, American Idol alumni Ruben Studdard. Looks like star power didn’t help. The Biggest Loser took a 27% loss from its two-hour Sunday Season 14 debut on January 6. That makes last night’s one-hour show the weight loss series’ lowest premiere ever. By the way, the debuts of Grimm, Dracula, Almost Human, Raising Hope and Enlisted are still to come this season. After Loser, NBC’s night saw mentor Cher showing Team Blake and everyone else in the vicinity exactly how being a superstar is done. Which is to say that The Voice (3.9/10) was back with a new show last night after last week’s recap. The one-hour Battles episode was up 30% over the October 8 recap (no surprise there), but it was down 13% from its two-hour October 1 original. Still, The Voice was easily the top rated show of the night while CBS’s NCIS was the most watched with 18.43 million viewers. Lit-up by the return of an original Voice lead-in Chicago Fire (2.4/7) rose 14% over last week. With a 2.8/8 rating, NBC won the night among adults 18-49 while CBS was tops in total viewers with 15.16 million watching. The rankings flipped in the second spot with CBS No. 2 among them demo with a 2.6/7 and NBC getting 9.31 million viewers.
If it’s that time of the fall season when most new shows have finally settled and the returning shows have found their pace. On ABC last night, that was dips and downs. The still heavily promoted Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2.7/8) slipped 7% from last week while fellow freshman The Goldbergs proved that 80s nostalgia doesn’t work for everyone as it tumbled 16% to a new low. That other newbie comedy of the night also had troubles as Trophy Wife (1.3/3) dipped 7% from its October 8 show. Filling the slot vacated by the quickly cancelled not-so Lucky 7, ABC once again had a Scandal (0.7/2) repeat at 10 PM.
It was a very good Tuesday night for The CW – in fact, the best in four years to be specific. In the third week of its freshman run, The Originals (1.1/3) was up 22%. In the second week of its ninth season, Supernatural (1.1/3) slipped 8% from its premiere. Overall, The CW was up 10% over last Tuesday.
NCIS (3.0/9) recovered from its slide last week to bop up 7% last night over October 8. A bit of time slot context – the long time procedural drama pulled further ahead of its Marvel time slot rival for another week. NCIS beat Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by 11% in the key demo. Tied for its lowest rated fall airing, NCIS: LA (2.6/7) was flat with last week. Person Of Interest (2.1/6) saw a rise of 5%.
Over on Fox, Dads (1.4/4) had an 8% rise over last week while Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.5/4) was even with its October 8th show. It wasn’t so sanguine for New Girl (1.8/5), which saw a 14% drop among adults 18-49 on Tuesday night. With an appearance by Kevin Smith and his perpetual hockey jersey, The Mindy Project (1.4/4) was flat with last week’s show.