‘NCIS: Sydney’ Debuts To Strong Audience On CBS & Paramount+

Katie Campione
·1 min read
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NCIS: Sydney had a strong showing out of the gate on Tuesday night.

The premiere episode drew 5.48M total viewers on CBS, making it the most-watched show during primetime across the broadcast networks, according to early Nielsen data.

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The episode was also live streamed on Paramount+, where it was the top entertainment program on Tuesday “based on reach,” Paramount Global reports. The company didn’t specify how many accounts interacted with the show.

However, Paramount did say that streaming for NCIS: Sydney on digital platforms (Paramount+ and the CBS app) was up 71% in average audience from the Season 2 premiere of NCIS: Hawaii last fall. This is a good indication that the series has attracted the attention of the NCIS audience, and possibly beyond.

The creation of NCIS: Sydney marked the first time one of CBS Studios’ global drama franchises earned an international spinoff. It also gave CBS the opportunity to debut new episodes of an NCIS show before the end of the year.

NCIS: Hawai’i is gearing up to begin production again now that SAG-AFTRA has struck a tentative deal with the studios, and it isn’t set to return until February. That same goes for the mothership series.

The NCIS properties are hugely popular for CBS and generally provide solid audiences each week, even amid overall declining broadcast viewership. Season 2 of NCIS: Hawai’i averaged about 5M live + same-day viewers per episode, while NCIS drew nearly 7M.

These days, those numbers are pretty impressive for anything besides live sports.

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