NBC got The Voice off to a good start last night, a 4.1 preliminary Adult 18-49 rating from 8-10 pm. The singing competition show started at a 3.2 in the 8:00 half hour, quickly building to a 3.9 at 8:30 and 4.6 at 9:00 before peaking at a 4.7 at 9:30. The last cycle of The Voice premiered with a 6.7 rating on Monday, February 6, 2012 from 8-10 pm (after a massive preview post-Super Bowl the night before). The Voice ended its run on Monday May 7 (3.8) and Tuesday May 8 (4.4) at a level closer to last night’s premiere. So it should bounce around a 4 rating — very good but not what it once was. In any case, it’s a huge improvement over the low-rated Sing-Off last fall (1.9 rating in its premiere Monday, September 19, 2011).
Then the news turned kind of sour at 10 pm. The New Normal, the comedy about a gay couple and the surrogate mother they have hired, previewed at 10:00 and plunged to a 2.5 rating. The comedy will be under a 2 rating very quickly when it is on its own. Matthew Perry’s Go On repeated at 10:30 (seemingly for the tenth time) and scored an OK 1.8 rating. NBC finished first for the evening, averaging a 3.4 from 8-11 pm.
FOX finished second with a 2.5 rating from 8-10 pm with the finales of Hell’s Kitchen (2.5) and MasterChef (2.6).
CBS finished in third place with a 1.4 rating. The conclusion of the Men’s US Open Tennis Final (delayed from Sunday) filled the first part of prime time, scoring a preliminary 1.7 rating from 8:00-9:17 pm. The match started at 4 pm ET and tied the record for the longest men’s final. The five-set victory by Great Britain’s Andy Murray (his first grand slam win at long last) was great television, but the low rating shows just how narrow tennis has become as a TV sport. The CBS comedy line-up repeated in the low-1 rating range from 9:17-11:17 pm.
ABC barely registered with a 1.1 rating from 8-11 pm. The embarrassing Bachelor Pad scored a 1.3 in its finale from 8-10 pm and nobody was interested in a Castle repeat at 10 pm (0.8).
