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Hard Crash for NBC’s Two-Hour Season Premiere of ‘Smash’

Feb 6, 2013  •  Post A Comment

NBC’s ambitious two-hour rollout for the new season of its musical drama series “Smash” fell to earth with a loud bang Tuesday night, based on Nielsen overnights.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that the broadcast mustered only a 1.1 average rating in the key 18-49 demo — an all-time low for the series. That number is down a whopping 71% from the 3.8 average for the series premiere a year ago, when the show led out from “The Voice,” and down 39% from the season one finale back in May.

NBC wound up a distant fifth among broadcast networks for prime time overall, getting little help from “Betty White’s 2nd Annual 90th Birthday Special,” which settled for a 1.5 average in viewers 18-49.

CBS won the night, paced by a 3.7 average for “NCIS” in the 18-49 demo — the top number of the night, even though it was off 3% from a week ago. “NCIS: Los Angeles” held steady with a 3.1 and “Vegas” tumbled 16% to a 1.9.

ABC finished a respectable second overall, driven by a 2.6 average in 18-49 for its two-hour “The Bachelor,” up 8% from the previous night. “The Taste” inched up to a 1.8, rising 13% from last week.

Fox was paced by a 2.5 in viewers 18-49 for “New Girl,” down 4%, while “The Mindy Project” ticked up 12% to a 1.9. Back-to-back episodes of “Raising Hope” settled for a 1.6 and a 1.5, both down 6%.

For the night, CBS led the way with a 2.8 average rating in the 18-49 demo, followed by ABC (2.3 average), Fox (1.9), Univision (1.7) and NBC (1.2). CBS had a huge lead in total viewers, averaging 16.1 million to 7.0 million for ABC, 5.0 million for NBC, 4.0 million for Univision and 4.0 million for Fox.

One Comment

  1. Smash had a weak lead-in. NBC didn’t really try to get it off to a good start. We will need to check Hulu to see if there was interest from the people that watched the Bachelor

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