RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Ready For Love’ Debuts Soft, ‘NCIS’, ‘Splash’ & ‘DWTS’ Hit Lows, ‘The Voice’ Slips, ‘Golden Boy’ Up
It was the last night of blind auditions on The Voice (4.2/13) on Wednesday. With one spot left on each of the judges’ teams, the one-hour show saw a Fleetwood Mac cover, an unsuccessful effort by the lead singer of LA’s own Venice and Shakira showing some of her own moves. Although blind auditions tend to be some of the most popular weeks of The Voice season after season, last night the show slipped 7% from the final numbers of its April 2 show. Comparing fast nationals to fast nations, the show was down a tenth from last week. Typically, like American Idol, The Voice sees an adjustment up in final numbers.
With a minute of Voice overrun, next up for NBC was the two-hour premiere of Ready For Love (1.6/4). With lots of promotion in The Voice and the singing show as a lead-in, the Eva Longoria-produced matchmaker series took the spots occupied last week by the season finale of The New Normal and the now-moved Go On and Smash. Hosted by Apprentice first season winner Bill Rancic and E! News’ Giuliana Rancic, the show saw a brief cameo introduction by Longoria before moving on to the first of its three male bachelors, the women who want to be theirs and the trio of professional matchmakers. While Ready For Love delivered the best 18-49 rating in the period for NBC since January 15 — with the exception of President Obama’s State of the Union address — it was no great shakes. The series was flat with the Season 1 debut of Fashion Star in the same slot onMarch 13, 2012. It was also the struggling network’s lowest-rated unscripted premiere in almost a year. Ready For Love did less than Take It All did when that latter debuted on December 10, 2012 with a 2.2/5, and less than Stars Earn Stripes’ 1.7/5 on August 13, 2012. NBC won the night among Adults 18-49 but CBS took the viewership top spot with 12.834 million watching.
Related: TV Weekly Warfare: NCAA, ACMs & ‘Big Bang’ Keep CBS On Top; NBC Maintains ‘Voice’ Boost
The return of a new NCIS (2.6/8) began CBS’ Tuesday night. The police procedural slid 19% from its last original March 26 to hit a season low. NCIS: LA (2.6/7) was up next, even with its last new show two weeks ago to tie a season low. Freshman Golden Boy (1.5/4) rose 15% in the 10 PM slot from last week’s season low.
ABC started with Splash (1.2/4), with the freshman celeb diving show taking a ratings dive, down 14% from its April 2 show to hit a season low. A live one-hour Dancing With The Stars (1.9/5) results show was also off its step, with the fourth week of the veteran series dropping 17% from last week to hit a results show season low. Garnering its second-biggest audience of the season and easily winning its 10 PM slot, Body Of Proof (1.4/4) was even ratings-wise with its April 2 show.
On Fox, the heat was on figuratively as always in Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen (1.8/6). The long-running cooking competition series was down 10% from its April 2 show. Comedies New Girl (2.2/6) and The Mindy Project (1.5/4) were up next. The former was even with its previous Tuesday original two weeks ago but up 10% from its out-of-position April 4 broadcast last week. Mindy Project had a nice rise, gaining 15% from last week’s show in adults 18-49 and up 12% in total viewers with 2.8 million.
The only original on the CW on Tuesday was Hart Of Dixie (0.6/2) at 8 PM.
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