Ratings Rat Race: Low Regular Slot Debut For ‘Intelligence’, ‘Blacklist’ Returns Down, ‘Sleepy Hollow’ Steady, ‘Bachelor’ Slips

Can we get Hawaii Five-0 back on Monday? CBS tried a serialized drama, Hostages, and a procedural, Intelligence, in the Monday 10 PM slot this season but can’t seem to get any traction in the hour it once owned with CSI: Miami and did respectable business with Hawaii Five-0. Last night, Intelligence picked up where Hostages left off, premiering in the time period to an underwhelming 1.1 in adults 18-49. That was down an alarming 54% from the preview the series got behind stalwart NCIS last Tuesday and on par with the low rated finale of Hostages last Monday (1.1 at 9 PM and 1.0 at 10 PM). The very soft performance of Intelligence, which stars Lost’s Josh Holloway and CSI‘s Marg Helgenberger, was even more puzzling because it followed a solid performance by CBS’ Monday comedy block and aired against a weakened Blacklist on NBC without a Voice lead-in. Speaking of CBS’ comedies, they all returned up from a month-long hiatus, How I Met Your Mother (3.0), up +11%, 2 Broke Girls (2.7), up +17% , Mike & Molly (2.4), up +9% and Mom (2.1/5) up +11%.

NBC’s The Blacklist (2.5) took an expected drop returning from a big two-part fall finale with no Voice lead-in. The heavily DVR-ed freshman drama was off by 22% from its last original six weeks ago. But it built on its lead-in, an American Ninja Warrior special (1.9) by a healthy 31%, a rare feat for a 10 PM show and an encouraging sign it could stand on its own, without The Voice. It beat soundly its 10 PM competition, Hostages and ABC’s Castle (1.9, up 12% from last week), and its 2.5 has only been topped by two other regular 10 PM dramas this season, ABC’s hot Scandal, which follows Grey’s Anatomy, and the first two episodes of NBC’s Chicago Fire, which followed the highly rated first two weeks of The Voice‘s Tuesday auditions. (more…)