RATINGS RECAP: 9/17/12

ABC
8:00 CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock
Viewers: 5.7 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5

CBS
8:00 How I Met Your Mother (Repeat)
Viewers: 4.2 million, 18-49 demo: 1.4
9:00 2 Broke Girls (Repeat)
Viewers: 4.9 million, 18-49 demo: 1.6
10:00 Hawaii Five-0 (Repeat)
Viewers: 4.4 million, 18-49 demo: 0.9

NBC
8:00 The Voice
Viewers: 13.6 million, 18-49 demo: 4.7
10:00 Revolution
Viewers: 11.7 million, 18-49 demo: 4.1

FOX
8:00 Bones
Viewers: 8.0 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
9:00 The Mob Doctor
Viewers: 5.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.5 

On Monday night, NBC had smashing success with week two of The Voice and the series premiere of Revolution. At 8pm, The Voice was up 1.3 million viewers and a strong half a demo point from last week's premiere. The fact that it went up in week two is a really good sign for the show as it prepares to do battle with Dancing with the Stars and the CBS comedies next week. At 10pm, the series premiere of Revolution was huge for NBC. Initial drop off from The Voice was big (not surprisingly) but it held up well past the 15 minute mark. It ended up being the biggest drama debut since V on ABC in 2009 and the biggest NBC drama debut since The Bionic Woman in 2007. No doubt NBC's marketing paid off big time with this big time premiere for a 10pm drama. But the question is, how does it hold up from here? There have been many event series such as FlashForward, The Event, and Invasion that have had big premieres and not been able to sustain the momentum. It's far too soon to call Revolution a hit but NBC has to be credited with getting a big audience sample.

FOX did not get nearly as good news. It wasn't bad at 8pm where veteran Bones got off to a solid start. It posted its best number since moving to Mondays on April 2 which is a positive. The show is aging but it has proven it can stand on its own. The news was much worse at 9pm where the series premiere of The Mob Doctor was dead on arrival with a paltry 1.5 demo. The show didn't have any buzz before premiering and the odd premise did not capture viewers at all. I speculated it might be the first cancellation of the season and this further confirms my predictions. FOX is in serious trouble with its dramas - Bones is old, Fringe is in its final season, Glee is fading, Touch is unlikely to do anything on Fridays, and now The Mob Doctor is a likely goner. With only the promising drama The Following on the shelf, FOX may need to think about getting another drama ready even though this isn't the typical time to pick up shows.