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One of NBC’s Strongest Shows Falls to Historic Low

May 1, 2012  •  Post A Comment

A show that has been one of the few bright spots for NBC during a season of relentless ratings challenges suffered a setback Monday night.

The network’s singing competition “The Voice” slipped 8% from a week ago in the key 18-49 demo, hitting a new series low for a performance episode with a 3.5 average rating in Nielsen overnights, TVbytheNumbers.com reports.

The ratings dip for “The Voice,” combined with upticks by much of the CBS comedy lineup, gave CBS its first overall Monday night win since the season premiere of “The Voice,” the report notes.

CBS saw improvement over the previous original episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” (up one-tenth of a ratings point to a 3.2 in 18-49), “2 Broke Girls” (3.5 average, up one-tenth) and “Mike & Molly” (3.2, up one-tenth). “Two and a Half Men” slipped one-tenth but was still the night’s top-rated show, averaging a 3.7.

Echoing NBC’s problems in the song-and-dance arena, ABC’s reality stalwart “Dancing with the Stars” also had a rough night, dropping a hefty 16% to a 2.7 average rating in 18-49, a series low for a performance show.

Fox had its own challenges, with “Bones” down three-tenths from a week ago to a season-low 2.7 in 18-49 while “House” fell two-tenths to a 2.1.

When the dust settled, CBS had a 3.1 average rating for the night in adults 18-49, beating NBC (2.9 average), ABC (2.6) and Fox (2.0). In total viewers it was ABC winning the night with 14.4 million to 10.0 million for CBS, 8.1 million for NBC and 6.8 million for Fox.

3 Comments

  1. The problem that I see with The Voice is that they are focusing too much on the back story of the contestants and the (manufactured)personality conflicts between the judges and not enough on the talent. I loved the first season of the show, I am finding the second season kind of tedious because I have to listen to so much filler in order to hear a performance. Hopefully in season 3 (if there is one), NBC will go back to making it about the voices of the contestants and not about who has the saddest back story.

  2. I love your headline “NBC Strongest Show Falls to Historic Low”. Ya got me to look. Only to find out that The Voice slipped a couple of tenths TO A 3.5 demo against strong original comedies on CBS. Every other network would kill for that number and you make it sound like a disaster. Shame on you.

  3. For those who don’t know, Vince was the former president and creative director of NBC’s in-house (and multi-award-winning) promo group.

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