Stats Spotlight - Ratings Highlights - Most Shows Stable Post-Premiere, With A Few Exceptions

(Check out my TV ratings website, www.seriesmonitor.com)

The second week of the 2013 - 2014 television season saw some interesting ratings. Let's run through some of the highlights.

Sunday:
ABC's Once Upon A Time kicked off its third season with a 2.6 rating and 8.52 million viewers. That's an improvement on the season 2 finale which earned a 2.3 rating and 7.33 million viewers. However last season's premiere earned a pretty impressive 3.9 rating and 11.36 million viewers - Sunday's premiere wasn't even close. View stats for this season of Once Upon A Time here.

Revenge also started on a positive note, with its third season premiere earning a 2.3 rating and 8.11 million viewers. It's the first time in 8 episodes that the series has broken the 2.0 rating mark, and the premiere was also the most viewed episode in nearly a year. The fifth episode of last season was the last time the series broke the 8 million viewer mark. View stats for this season of Revenge here.

Monday:
The third episode of Bones scored a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating, and 7.26 million viewers. This is well up on last Monday's episode which felt the pressure from competition from other networks, earning a 1.9 rating and 6.74 million viewers. View stats for this season of Bones here.

Sleepy Hollow earned a 3.5 rating and 10.10 million viewers three weeks ago when it premiered. Episode 2 dropped down to a 3.1 rating and 8.59 million viewers, but Monday night's episode showed the series is beginning to bottom out, with that episode earning a 3.0 rating and 7.97 million viewers. Fans needn't worry any further for the future of the show this season, with FOX announcing the series has already secured a second season.

The Blacklist on NBC did absolutely everything right on Monday at 10pm, with an excellent episode which disproved my concerns that the series wouldn't be able to maintain the level of intensity which the pilot provided. The premiere earned a 3.8 rating and 12.58 million viewers, but the even better news is that the post-premiere drop was pretty small, with Monday's episode earning a 3.3 rating and 11.35 million viewers. That is a half ratings point drop, but only a 1.23 million viewer drop. That shows the audience retention is pretty solid, and NBC agree, having just increased their season order to 22 episodes. View stats for this season of The Blacklist here.

The second episode of the season, and the conclusion of the 2 part premiere of Castle earned a 2.2 rating and 10.88 million viewers, equaling the previous week's rating even though there was a small decrease in total audience. Comparing that to the second episode of last season (1.9 rating and 10.45 million viewers), the signs of a stable rating season are presenting themselves early. Castle also outrated its lead-in, Dancing With The Stars, by 0.2 of a ratings point - the third time in the series' history that that has happened. View stats for this season of Castle here.

Tuesday:
The second episode of the season, and the final farewell to Cote de Pablo, was the best episode NCIS has had in years. The viewers responded too, with 19.98 million viewers tuning in, earning a 3.5 rating. The premiere earned a 3.6 rating and 20.02 million viewers - a mere 0.1 ratings point drop, and just 40,000 viewers. It will be interesting to see how many viewers may give next week's episode a miss now that Ziva has bowed out. View stats for this season of NCIS here.

Following its mammoth 4.7 rating and 12.12 million viewer series premiere the previous week, Tuesday's episode of Agents of SHIELD plummeted considerably, earning a 3.3 rating and 8.66 million viewers. That's a 28.5% decrease in audience and a 29.8% decrease in ratings, since the premiere. Though the ratings show that there's reasonably high percentage of viewers in the prime advertising demo, further decreases wouldn't be favorable.

The third season premiere of Person of Interest set a new series low ratings record, and the second episode which aired on Tuesday lowered that record further by 0.2 of a ratings point. Tuesday's episode earned a 2.1 rating and 12.35 million viewers - only 90,000 fewer viewers than the premiere, which is impressively small, but it's unfortunate the ratings decrease doesn't reflect that. Either way, the series stands a pretty good chance of renewal thanks to syndication possibilities according to TVByTheNumbers. View stats for this season of Person of Interest here.

Wednesday:
NBC's Revolution continues to decline, with the second episode of season 2 earning a 1.6 rating and 5.46 million viewers. That's down 0.2 of a ratings point and 1.35 million viewers on the series premiere, as the story heads in a new direction of strange phenomenons - consistent with J.J. Abrams' way of doing things, but which also made me screw my nose up a little. For the record, it's a new series low in both rating and audience, and I don't think the decline has finished just yet. A lot hinges on the ratings from here on as to whether NBC picks up the series for a third season. View stats for this season of Revolution here.

On the back of its one hour special premiere last Wednesday, Modern Family remained strong in week 2. Both the premiere and Wednesday's episode earned a 4.2 rating, with the premiere scoring 560,000 more viewers than Wednesday's episode. The second episode of last season had a rating 0.7 of a point, and 2.4 million viewers less than last season's premiere, though part of that can be put down to the fortnight break between the two, thanks to a US Presidential Debate. View stats for this season of Modern Family here.

Criminal Minds also remained very stable in the second week of the season, with Wednesday's episode earning a 2.7 rating and 11.12 million viewers, as the 2 part premiere concludes. The premiere earned a mere 0.1 of a ratings point, and 150,000 more viewers than Wednesday's episode. It will be interesting to see if there's a drop next week with the 2 part premiere all wrapped up. View stats for this season of Criminal Minds here.

Thursday:
Following the hour long premiere last week in which The Big Bang Theory broke records, Thursday's episode was comparatively muted, earning a 5.2 rating and 18.22 million viewers. That's a 0.9 ratings point, and a 2.2 million viewer reduction on the second half of last week's premiere, but 0.8 of a ratings point and 3.99 million viewers more than the third episode of last season. View stats for this season of The Big Bang Theory here.

The news isn't great for Glee, with Thursday's episode well down on the premiere, and setting new series lows in both rating and and audience in the process. A 1.6 rating and 4.42 million viewers is all Thursday's episode could manage, down from the 2.0 rating and 5.06 million viewers the premiere received. Next week's episode is the tribute to Finn Hudson, played by the late Cory Monteith, so it's possible ratings will see a bump next week. View stats for this season of Glee here.

Grey's Anatomy dropped 0.3 of a ratings point, but increased its audience by 330,000 viewers this week top of on last week's 2 hour premiere. That audience increase isn't something I would have called, especially seeing as the ratings drop has been typical of the show over the last few seasons. View stats for this season of Grey's Anatomy here.

Scandal returned on Thursday with what was by far the best season premiere of any show that I've seen this season. And the ratings supported that, with the premiere blowing away the previous series high ratings and audience records which were both set in the season 2 finale. The series 3 premiere earned a massive 3.6 rating and 10.52 million viewers. That's a 0.4 ratings point increase on the previous ratings record, and 1.4 million viewers more than the previous audience record. It also comfortably outrated, and had a much larger audience than Grey's Anatomy - the latter is something the show hasn't done before, Awesome stuff from an awesome show. View stats for this season of Scandal here.

So that's a brief roundup of the ratings highlights for this week. Share your thoughts in the comments below and follow me on Twitter!

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Thanks for reading!
Jimmy