Premiere Week Ratings - Tuesday, Sept. 22

Tuesdays, for me, have reverted back to a mostly dead night of TV programming. I am not an NCIS fan, don't like ANY dancing show. and Biggest Loser is just that, IMO. Oh, and no one watches the CW and that includes me. Outside of catching up on DVR content, It was Hell's Kitchen last night and then Flipping Out over on Bravo, at 10pm. But, Lets look at how the other shows performed.

The Winners:
#1) NCIS - The 7th season premiere brought the series its biggest numbers ever. 20.6 million viewers and a 4.8 18-49 demo rating. Both top for the entire evening. This series is not going anywhere, anytime soon. In fact, one could say it has yet to peak.

#2) NCIS: LA - The series premiere did big numbers (18.73 Million viewers, 4.4 demo) and followed out of NCIS very nicely. Those that said this would not work were completely wrong. NCIS'ers will stay seated for 2 hours.

#3) Hell's Kitchen - A summer series that went head to head with DWTS, NCIS and Biggest Loser and was #2 in the demo in its time slots and drew very respectable viewer numbers.


The Losers:
Well, it will always be the CW shows, but last night was a big blow for the network. 90210 is already below 2 million viewers and Melrose Place had viewer levels (1.44 million viewers, 0.8 demo rating) comparable to that of repeats on MyTV's JAIL series. Yes, Women 18-34 is its target demo graphic, but with out a solid foundation, both shows will still fall short in drawing target viewers. I guess that is why the CW's upfront was similar to that of a 2nd or 3rd tier cable network.

One ratings of concern will be that of DWTS. Yes, its numbers are down, but in just the 2nd episode it is down at a mid 3 demo rating. Could this competition series see an average demo rating for the season in the mid 2's??