RATINGS RECAP: 9/24/12

ABC
8:00 Dancing with the Stars
Viewers: 14.1 million, 18-49 demo: 2.5
10:00 Castle
Viewers: 10.5 million, 18-49 demo: 2.1

CBS
8:00 How I Met Your Mother
Viewers: 8.8 million, 18-49 demo: 3.6
8:30 Partners
Viewers: 6.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.4
9:00 2 Broke Girls
Viewers: 10.1 million, 18-49 demo: 3.7
9:30 Mike & Molly
Viewers: 9.5 million, 18-49 demo: 3.1
10:00 Hawaii Five-0
Viewers: 8.1 million, 18-49 demo: 1.8

NBC
8:00 The Voice
Viewers: 12.2 million, 18-49 demo: 4.4
10:00 Revolution
Viewers: 9.2 million, 18-49 demo: 3.4

FOX
8:00 Bones
Viewers: 7.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
9:00 The Mob Doctor
Viewers: 3.9 million, 18-49 demo: 1.3

On the first night of the 2012-13 season, it was surging NBC in first place as they have vastly improved their Mondays. At 8pm, The Voice was down 1.4 million viewers and three tenths in the demo which is not a bad drop at all considering ABC and CBS gave much more competition. It was still above its premiere two weeks ago against limited competition. This show is really making a mark right now but what happens when the most popular part of the show - the blind auditions - ends? Do we see drops like we saw last spring? At 10pm, Revolution was down 2.5 million viewers and seven tenths in the demo but easily dominated its time period in the demo. Considering a typical drop for a show like this in week two and much tougher competition, I think this can be considered a success for NBC. Keep in mind that Smash was already down to a 2.8 in its second week last spring with a much bigger lead-in. NBC needs to not take take its foot of the gas with promotion for this show because a lot of people came back for week two.

CBS did not have a bad premiere night and it is pointless to compare to last year's insane numbers with Ashton Kutcher's Two and a Half Men debut. But there were two glaring weaknesses that have to have CBS very concerned. At 8pm, How I Met Your Mother was way below what it was getting last fall but slightly above what it was getting in the spring. Without a formidable companion in the hour, Mother might have a rougher go as a lead-off in what could be its final season. At 8:30pm, CBS sprung a major leak with the premiere of Partners. The show lost a huge chunk of its Mother lead in and might have even hurt 2 Broke Girls at 9pm. Its premiere numbers were around Mad Love numbers and I don't think CBS is going to stand for that very long especially with a sure drop coming next week for the critically panned show. Looks like CBS can't just put anything here and make it work. Audiences have some level of standards. At 9pm, the season premiere of 2 Broke Girls took over the 9pm and performed admirably as it was CBS's top draw on the night. I really think it can grow in this slot and will benefit if it has a better lead-in (Rules of Engagement? repeats of The Big Bang Theory?) At 9:30pm, the season premiere of Mike & Molly was also around what it was getting last spring. The problem is shows are supposed to be be up from the spring. The biggest problem besides Partners came at 10pm though where Hawaii Five-0 completely fell apart to a series low. I thought it might drop but this is astonishing and I'm not sure anyone can explain what happened here. It will be interesting to see if it goes up if/when Revolution drops. So all in all, some positives but some major negatives for CBS too.

The news was pretty bad over on ABC where its numbers were way way down from last fall and even the spring. The heavily hyped Dancing with the Stars All-Stars was down a horrible 4.7 million viewers and a full demo point from its spring premiere, which was itself down from last fall's premiere. Like most reality franchises, this one is looking real tired and ABC's summer troubles don't seem to be stopping yet for ABC. This is a real bad showing for a show that ABC devotes three hours a week to. At 10pm, the season premiere of Castle was also down huge from last fall's premiere (1.1 demo points!) Both Castle and Hawaii were rocked by Revolution but it did manage to win the total viewers for the hour and beat Hawaii for second in the demo. The good news is that retention out of Dancing was not too bad.

FOX had some positive news at 8pm where Bones was down just four tenths in viewers and even in the demo from last week when its competition was much lighter. This show gets thrown the wolves a lot by FOX and seems to hold up no matter where it goes. FOX is so thin on dramas, it must be a relief to see this show continue to be steady. At 9pm, the DOA The Mob Doctor was down 1.2 million viewers and two tenths in the demo from a terrible premiere. FOX might yank the show this week but I think they give it one more week and then yank it. Either way, it won't be around long. It's headed to the bench or maybe Fridays at any point.