TV Ratings: ‘NCIS’ Arrests Attention of the Key Demo, Leading Tuesday Night

Mónica Marie Zorrilla
·4 min read
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Even after 17 years on air, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs continues to arrest the attention of “NCIS” fans. The beloved CBS action-packed police procedural starring Mark Harmon draws impressive numbers for the Big 4 television network.

The drama’s winter return at 8 p.m. was the top program on Tuesday night in Nielsen+Live Same Day stats, obtaining a 0.8 rating in the key, adults ages 18-49 demographic and 9.34 million viewers, a leap of 12.36% in the demo and 9.51% in viewership compared to the last episode, which dropped in December. At 9 p.m., a special episode of “NCIS” attracted 8.4 million viewers and came in second overall in the key demographic, scoring a 0.7.

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CBS also took third place in both the key demo and total viewers with a new episode of “FBI: Most Wanted,” which, like “NCIS,” was on holiday hiatus. The “FBI” spinoff garnered a 0.5 rating in the key demo and 5.7 million viewers.

Elsewhere on television on Tuesday evening, a new episode of Fox’s “The Resident” at 8 p.m. got a 0.5 rating and 3.26 million viewers, while ABC’s special screening of the enchanting live-action “Cinderella” with Lily James, Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham-Carter also drew a 0.5 rating (and 3.11 million viewers). That same hour, a new episode of NBC’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” drew a 0.4 in 18-49 and 2.4 million viewers— a substantial increase compared to last season’s 2.0 million viewer average— and The CW’s “Two Sentence Horror Stories” came at the bottom of the timeslot with a 0.1 and 0.65 million viewers. At 8:30 p.m., The CW dropped another new episode of the horror fiction anthology series (0.1, 0.46).

At 9 p.m., a new episode of the second season of “Prodigal Son,” which premiered last week on Fox, drew a 0.5 rating in the key demographic and 2.34 million viewers. Also on at 9 p.m. was an encore of NBC’s “This Is Us,” which drew a 0.3 in the 18-49 demographic and 1.9 million viewers. The CW came last in the timeslot again with a new episode airing of “Trickster” (0.1, 0.40), but the Canadian supernatural teen drama did attract 11.11% more viewers in the key demo compared to last week.

From 10-11 p.m. on NBC, a new episode of Canadian medical series “Nurses” drew a 0.2 in the key demo and 1.8 million viewers.

Over on the Spanish language giants, Univision dropped new episodes of Mexican telenovelas “Vencer el desamor” at 8 p.m. (0.5, 1.7), and “Imperio de Mentiras” at 9 p.m. (0.4, 1.3). At 10 p.m., Univision ran a new episode of Brazilian telenovela “A Dona do Pedaço (Dulce Ambición),” which drew a 0.3 in the key demo and 1.3 million viewers. Throughout the evening, Telemundo premiered new episodes of the game show “El Domo del Dinero” (0.3, 0.94) at 8 p.m., Turkish soap opera “Todo Por Mi Hija” (0.4, 1.5) at 9 p.m., and Telemundo Global Studios-produced telenovela “Falsa Identidad” (0.3, 0.9) at 10 p.m.

Additionally, ABC ran reruns of its sitcoms “Call Your Mother” at 10 p.m. (0.3, 1.9) and “The Conners” at 10:30 p.m. (0.3, 1.53).

Overall, CBS won Tuesday’s primetime nightly averages with a 0.7 rating and about 7.8 million viewers. Fox was second in the demo with a 0.5 and 2.8 million viewers. Univision and ABC were tied for third in the demo with a 0.4 but, ABC garnered an average of 2.64 million viewers while Univision got 1.4 million. NBC and Telemundo also tied for fourth, with a 0.3 rating each, but NBC led in viewers (2 versus 1.1 million). The CW came in last with a 0.1 rating and 476,000 viewers.

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