RATINGS RECAP: 9/23/13

ABC
8:00 Dancing with the Stars
Viewers: 13.6 million, 18-49 demo: 2.3
10:00 Castle
Viewers: 11.5 million, 18-49 demo: 2.2

CBS
8:00 How I Met Your Mother
Viewers: 9.4 million, 18-49 demo: 3.7
9:00 2 Broke Girls
Viewers: 8.9 million, 18-49 demo: 2.8
9:30 Mom
Viewers: 8.0 million, 18-49 demo: 2.5
10:00 Hostages
Viewers: 7.4 million, 18-49 demo: 1.8

NBC
8:00 The Voice
Viewers: 15.0 million, 18-49 demo: 5.1
10:00 The Blacklist
Viewers: 12.6 million, 18-49 demo: 3.8

FOX 
8:00 Bones
Viewers: 6.7 million, 18-49 demo: 1.9
9:00 Sleepy Hollow
Viewers: 8.6 million, 18-49 demo: 3.1

On the opening night of the 2013-14 season, it was all NBC all night as their combo of The Voice and The Blacklist got off to a great start. The fifth edition of The Voice with the original coaches got off to a phenomenal start. It was up nicely from both the fall and spring edition premieres last year. This show is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down and it managed to post these fantastic numbers even with new shows galore on the other networks. At 10pm, the series premiere of new drama The Blacklist got off to a stellar start. It beat the competing new drama Hostages by two full demo points. While it was slightly below the Revolution premiere, that show started a week early against less competition. It handily beat the second episode of Revolution which aired on this night a year ago. Feedback has been positive so NBC will be promoting it like crazy with these numbers as they try to get a show to stick here.

Things were not as rosy for CBS on premiere night. The night started off well for them as the one hour final season premiere of How I Met Your Mother was up a tenth in the demo from last year's season premiere. At 9pm though 2 Broke Girls continued to prove it is not a solid anchor. It was down a big nine tenths from last year's season premiere and it seems like it will continue to slide like it did last year. This is becoming a real problem for CBS. The series premiere of the Anna Faris-Allison Janney sitcom Mom followed and posted disappointing numbers though retention out of Girls wasn't bad. This show might have been better suited at 8pm where Mother is a much better lead-in than the sure to be doomed We Are Men. Mom was the least of CBS's problems though because Hostages was pretty much DOA by CBS standards at 10pm. This was a hugely disappointing premiere in a slot where Under the Dome rocked it all summer. It's hard to imagine a serial drama like Hostages growing from here and I hate to make too snappy a judgment, but I wonder if CBS will even air all 15 planned episodes on Monday night.

While NBC was impressive for sure, the real winner of the night might have been Sleepy Hollow which had a fantastic hold in week two against tons of competition. First off though Bones was down 1.1 million viewers and four tenths in the demo. This isn't too surprising with the competition and I think it will crawl back above a 2.0 in the weeks to come. But the best news was at 9pm where Sleepy Hollow was down 1.5 million viewers and four tenths in the demo from last week's series premiere. This is a great hold especially for a genre show and against CBS premieres and the stronger hours of Dancing with the Stars and The Voice.

Over on ABC, Dancing with the Stars took a big hit against The Voice as it dropped 2.4 million viewers and eight tenths in the demo. Honestly, this is to be expected and it was only down two tenths in the demo from last year's premiere, which aired on this night, and up two tents in the demo from the second episode last year. At 10pm, the season premiere of Castle posted respectable numbers against two series premieres. It was a distant second to The Blacklist but topped Hostages and was up a tenth in the demo from last year's premiere. All in all, it was a pretty solid night for ABC when every other network was more newsworthy and exciting.