Ratings: ‘Monday Night Football’ at Season High; ‘Blindspot,’ ‘Supergirl’ Hit Lows
The Monday kicking off a holiday week produced lower-than-usual same-night ratings numbers for top shows NBC’s “The Voice” and “Blindspot,” with the former impacted by the final performance episode of competing reality series “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC and the latter dropping to a low even with its fall finale. Also on the decline and hitting a low was CBS rookie “Supergirl,” which is now delivering a young-adult audience on par with CW’s “The Flash” and only a little ahead of Fox’s “Gotham.”
Impacting the broadcast networks on Monday was the highest-rated “Monday Night Football” game of the season for ESPN. Its Buffalo Bills-New England Patriots matchup averaged a 10.0 overnight household rating, putting it a tick above the franchise’s previous fall high (9.9) set on Oct. 4 with Detroit-Seattle. The cabler will win the night with ease, and is projected to draw a 5-plus demo rating and in the vicinity of 15 million viewers in the nationals.
ABC’s preliminary numbers will be revised down in the nationals due to preemptions in both local football markets. The game did a 31.5 rating on WCVB in Boston (plus a 10.9 on ESPN) and a 27.1 on WKBW in Buffalo (plus a 15.1 on ESPN).
In the early numbers, “Dancing With the Stars” averaged a 2.4 rating/7 share in adults 18-49 and 14.3 million viewers overall, while the fall finale of “Castle” did a 1.5/5 in the demo and about 8 million total viewers. It’s likely the reality show, whose season finale is set for tonight, will finish around a 2.0 or 2.1 in the finals.
At NBC, “The Voice” (2.5/8 in 18-49, 10.2 million viewers overall) saw its typical pre-Thanksgiving decline opposite a stronger “Dancing,” but should finish ahead of the ABC program in demos; it also is on par with its performance on the year-ago night (2.6). Closing the night, “Blindspot” was down 0.2 to its low, but still towered over the 1.4 that “State of Affairs” did in the hour a year ago for the Peacock. Despite lower numbers this week, NBC again won all six half-hours in 18-49 among the broadcast networks.
CBS’ “Supergirl” (1.5/5 in 18-49, 7.2 million viewers overall) was down 0.3 to its season low and in line with what the network did on the same night a year ago with a new “2 Broke Girls” and a repeat “The Big Bang Theory.” “Scorpion” (1.7/5 in 18-49, 8.9 million viewers overall) held steady week to week, building on “Supergirl” by 0.2, and “NCIS: Los Angeles” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 7.7 million viewers overall) was slightly lower than last week.
At Fox, “Gotham” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall) was down a tenth to its second lowest score of the fall, but it pulled within a tenth of “Supergirl” in 18-49 while the two shows tied in 18-34 (1.0). “Minority Report” (0.6/2 in 18-49, 1.6 million viewers overall) was down a tenth.
CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (0.3/1 in 18-49, 0.9 million viewers overall) held steady, and “Jane the Virgin” dipped (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.0 million viewers overall). The network on Monday picked up five additional episodes of “Crazy,” bringing its first-season order to 18.
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