Monday number three of the 2012 TV season was yesterday, and things are starting to show signs of settling down from all the hypes surrounding the various shows and the fallout from their premieres.
On NBC at 8pm, The Voice had its strongest rating episode since the season officially began, drawing in 12.89 million viewers and a 4.8 18/49 rating in the two hours to 10pm. As usual, ABC aired its All Stars Dancing With The Stars competition, but the ratings certainly wouldn't have put stars in the eyes of the ABC executives. Despite pulling the better part of a million more viewers than The Voice did, DWTS managed just a 2.2 rating. More on that later. On FOX, Bones pulled in a season low 2.0 rating, but audience numbers were slightly up on last week, with 7.20 million viewers tuning in. How I Met Your Mother on CBS drew in the third highest rating of the night, a 3.1, and 7.82 million viewers for its half hour. It led in new series Partners, which managed a 1.9 rating and 5.71 million viewers, slightly down on last week
At 9pm, DWTS and The Voice continue on their respective networks, but 2 Broke Girls on CBS managed a 3.4 rating, down 0.1 from last week, but still enough to be second best in ratings for the evening, and 9.42 million viewers, which is up on last week. However things are looking less and less positive for freshman series The Mob Doctor on FOX, falling below the 1.0 rating from last week, to a new season low 0.9 rating, and a pitiful 3.36 million viewers. I think this series is definitely one of the better new series this season, but FOX can only blame themselves for a shocking scheduling decision. I've said that several times now, unfortunately. Back to CBS, where at 9:30pm, Mike & Molly drew in a 2.8 rating and 8.67 million viewers. Like its lead-in, 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly was down 0.1 on last weeks rating, but up slightly in audience numbers
The 10pm slot brought the most interesting surprise of the night, with ABC's Castle equaling Dancing With The Stars rating. This is the first time in the show's history that it's managed to do this, it came just short on October 31 last year. Castle's final rating was a 2.2. What's more, last nights episode beat both the premiere, and last weeks episode, by 0.1 and 0.3 of a ratings point respectively, The audience numbers were also up on the premiere and last weeks episode, with 10.61 million viewers tuning in. If all that wasn't enough, it's the first time the third episode of a season has beaten the second episode of the season, and of course the premiere episode of a season. Good news no matter how you look at it.
On NBC, Revolution continues its steady decline since its premiere on September 17, with a 3.0 rating and 8.01 million viewers. The curve on the graph on this page looks to be leveling out, so the performance of next weeks episode will be interesting. On CBS, Hawaii Five-0 was, like it's lead-ins, down 0.1 of a ratings point on last week, but up around 400,000 viewers, on last week, to 8.39 million viewers. This audience is also a season high
So all in all, an interesting night, with the biggest surprise being, as I said, Castle equaling DWTS's lead-in rating. Could this mean DWTS is more at risk of being canceled than Castle for next season?? It would seem too good to be true. Next weeks ratings performance will definitely provide more evidence for a more accurate answer
Also next week, FOX's Bones and The Mob Doctor take a four week break, returning on November 5. Where the viewers for both those shows decide to go in the meantime will be interesting, but most likely tricky to detect, considering, especially in the case of The Mob Doctor, the comparatively small audience size, with Bones pulling the third smallest audience, and The Mob Doctor the smallest audience, in last nights numbers (excluding the CW network)
I'll finish up with a couple of graphs, the season 3 and 4 ratings graphs for Castle. On them, you can easily pick which lead-in points are DWTS and which aren't, but if you have a look at the current graph for this season here, you certainly couldn't tell them apart if you didn't know which was which
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| Season 3 Castle ratings |
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| Season 4 Castle ratings |
Jimmy
