Ugliness in almost all directions.
NBC: THE VOICE had by far its worst regular outing of the season at 3.0, down 0.8 from 2 weeks ago (Election Night preempted all of primetime last week) and tying a clip show that aired on Oct 2. The “good” news for NBC was that despite the Voice’s tailspin for the night, GO ON was only slightly down to 2.3, although that was still its second-lowest airing (the only lower one was on that same Oct. 2). As of now, Go On is narrowly ahead in the battle of 9PM sitcoms, but 2 weeks ago the order reversed itself when final numbers were released and FOX ended up on top. THE NEW NORMAL was up slightly from its season low to 1.8 (again, just marginally ahead of FOX for now), and PARENTHOOD, although the winner of its hour, was low at 1.8 (the only lower number this season was on, you guessed it, Oct 2). The moral of all this, not unexpectedly, is that as The Voice goes, so goes NBC’s Tuesday–which is a scary prospect for the coming months when it will be between cycles.
ABC: Stable, but not in a good way. The DANCING WITH THE STARS results hour was up slightly from its season low to 1.9. HAPPY ENDINGS was steady at 1.4, but far behind the slot’s other sitcoms, and DON’T TRUST THE B— hit a new low 1.1. Saddest of all, as it prepares to head out the door, was the series-low 1.1 for PRIVATE PRACTICE.
FOX: Season lows for 3 of the night’s 4 sitcoms. RAISING HOPE was down marginally to 1.6, but BEN AND KATE (FOX has to be regretting this back order, even with a reduced number of episodes) fell 0.3 to an awful 1.1. NEW GIRL, far from its high-flying days last season, was down a bit to 2.2. The only slight bright spot was THE MINDY PROJECT, up 0.2 from its last airing to 1.7 and just a tick behind NBC in the current numbers.
FOX: Even mighty NCIS was dented by the low-rated night, down 0.4 from its last broadcast to 3.0. NCIS LA held even at 2.8, but VEGAS was down to 1.6, tying its series low.
CW: An inexplicably good week for the network continued, as HART OF DIXIE climbed to 0.7, a strong number in this context. That helped EMILY OWENS MD to grow a bit to a not-so-awful 0.4.
Tonight: the return of WHITNEY! Yes, that champion of schadenfreude (behind only Smash) is back, possibly to prove everyone wrong (and possibly not). The rest of the network line-ups are all new, thanks to November sweeps.
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