Ratings: NBC’s ‘Voice’ Dominates; Fox’s ‘Following’ Has Decent Return

Fox’s “The Following” kicked off its third season Monday with decent numbers, down from last year but above the recent timeslot average of “Sleepy Hollow.” Like everything else on the Monday schedule, though, it was devoured by NBC’s “The Voice,” which dominated the night despite slight demo declines from its week-earlier premiere.

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen,the Kevin Bacon drama “The Following” averaged a 1.6 rating/4 share in adults 18-49 and 4.8 million viewers overall in the 9 o’clock hour — down 20% from its timeslot premiere a year ago but matching the show’s Monday average of last season. “Sleepy Hollow” did below a 1.6 with all six of its 2015 originals, including last week’s finale (1.4).

“Following” may have a tougher time in coming weeks, though, as its “Gotham” lead-in will be airing some repeats. Last night, “Gotham” cooled off some (2.0/6 in 18-49, 6.1 million viewers overall), declining 0.3 from its 2015 high set last week. It remained the night’s top scripted program in men 18-49 (2.2/7) and adults 18-34 (1.4/6) and tied with “The Voice” as No. 1 overall among males 12-34 (1.6/7).

At NBC, which swept the night in key demos as well as total viewers, “The Voice” (3.8/11 in 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall) was down 0.3 from its premiere but still rated more than 50% higher than any other Monday series. The show is gaining more viewers 50 and older this season, and that helped it pad its total-viewer tally, with last night’s live auditions episode drawing “The “Voice’s” largest overall audience for any night in about a year.

This is the first time since the fall 2012 edition that “The Voice” has built in total viewers on Monday from Week 1 to Week 2.

At 10 p.m., “The Night Shift” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 6.3 million viewers overall) limited its week-to-week decline to 0.1, but last night it had the advantage of facing repeat dramas on both ABC and CBS. It did seem to pick up some of the older viewers who usually watch originals of “Castle” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” in the timeslot, as the medical drama shot up 15% from its premiere in total viewers.

CBS aired mostly repeats, but lone original “Mike & Molly” had a good night (2.2/6 in 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall), up 10% from last week when it had a stronger lead-in from “2 Broke Girls” and standing as Monday’s top scripted series in 18-49. “Mike & Molly” seems to fare better behind other shows from the Chuck Lorre assembly line, and last night it aired behind a special repeat of “The Big Bang Theory” (1.8/6 in 18-49, 8.6 million viewers overall).

Encores of “Scorpion” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 7.5 million viewers overall) and “NCIS: Los Angeles” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall) closed out the night for the Eye.

At ABC, the “Women Tell All” episode of “The Bachelor” (2.4/7 in 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall) was down 0.2 from last week’s regular episode, but up a tick vs. the 2.3 it did on the comparable night a year ago. The show is heading into its finale next week with momentum, having posted year-over-year growth with each of its last four episodes.

The Alphabet capped its night with a special repeat of the opening hour of the previous night’s “Secrets and Lies” premiere (1.0/3 in 18-49, 4.2 million viewers overall).

CW aired repeats of “The Originals” (0.3/1 in 18-49, 0.8 million viewers overall) and “Jane the Virgin” (0.2/1 in 18-49, 0.6 million viewers overall).

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC, 3.0/9; ABC, 1.9/6; Fox, 1.8/5; CBS, 1.5/5; Univision, 1.2/4; Telemundo, 0.6/2.

In total viewers: NBC, 11.6 million; CBS, 7.8 million; ABC, 6.8 million; Fox, 5.4 million; Univision, 3.1 million; Telemundo, 1.4 million; CW, 0.7 million.

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