Big Talking points are:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D starts big
The Voice holds up well, and is a monster in the second hour
Chicago Fire wins the 10pm hour, does extremely well
Fox comedies fall, dads and mindy certainly dead
Lucky 7 DOA

Great start for SHIELD, despite social media being divided over the pilot episode. The critics seems to like it, although almost all agreed that it was good but not great.

4.6 is a very strong figure in ABC considering:

1. ABC hasn't had a 4+ premiere since Modern Family and Cougar Town in 2009.
2. It was up against The Voice on NBC and NCIS on CBS
3. It was slotted on a Tuesday, which seems to perform worse than their Friday lineups.

The Goldbergs will have a potential to get a full season order while Trophy Wife is likely to be gone after 6 episodes. Lucky 7 did worse than Hostages, although I put my money that Betrayal will do much worse on Sunday. It's really funny how Chicago Fire (2.8) on NBC beat Person of interest (2.3) on CBS. I can see CBS being pissed off about that. They can't use "NCIS still gets almost 20m total viewers" spin forever (they got 19.47m). The FOX comedies are reaching the flopping territory and only New Girl is likely to make it past the New Year.

No comment on The CW until they make their season return in October.

US TV Ratings

ABC

S.H.I.E.L.D - 4.6 (11.90m)
The Goldbergs - 3.2 (9.11m)
Trophy Wife - 2.3 (6.61m)
Lucky 7 - 1.3 (4.57m)

CBS

NCIS - 3.4 (19.47m)
NCIS: LA - 3.0 (16.17m)
Person of Interest - 2.3 (12.29m)

NBC

The Voice - 4.6 (14.14m)
Chicago Fire - 2.8 (9.25m)

FOX

Dads - 1.5 (3.65m)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 1.8 (4.00m)
New Girl - 2.1 (4.10m)
The Mindy Project - 1.5 (3.04m)

Half Hours

NCIS 3.4/3.5
The Voice 3.7/4.3/5.0/5.3
Agents of SHIELD 4.5/4.6
NCIS: Los Angeles 3.1/2.9
Person of Interest 2.3/2.2
Chicago Fire 3.2/2.5
Lucky 7 1.4/1.2

S.H.I.E.L.D debuted very strong. It all went down hill from there though for ABC. The Goldbergs did well, but Trophy Wife and Lucky 7 look DOA.

CBS skewed very old with NCIS and NCIS:LA (as expected). Both are down quite a bit on last season. As mentioned above, CBS will be a little annoyed that PoI was beaten by Chicago Fire on NBC.

NBC performed very well; The Voice soaring between 9pm and 10pm. Chicago Fire performed well at 10pm, and I think NBC may have got their scheduling right on that one. The Voice, as some in America are saying, is a monster.

Fox dropped quite a bit after last week. Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine were always going to lose out to the other three, but they were big losers. Only New Girl above 2.0 all night. Poor for Fox.

A mixed night for ABC to say the least. SHIELD debuts big and The Goldbergs gets a great sampling but then everything drops. Trophy Wife not looking good and Lucky 7 is DOA. This all-new line-up was always a risk and it hasn't panned out well. They have to hope SHILED holds up now because it doesn't look like anything else will. I can't say I'm surprised they flat lined. They really should have switched Goldbergs and Trophy Wife around though. Trophy Wife is the much stronger show.

Another great night for NBC albeit not as great as Monday. The Voice down against stiffer competition on Tuesday but still very impressive and Chicago Fire returns for its second season up but that was always going to happen given its new lead-in. And it comfortably wins the 10PM slot for them. Of course NBC face their first non-Voice and non-football night of the year tonight. It won't be pretty. An hour of Revolution (which is going to have horrible year-on-year drops) followed by two hours of SVU (against Criminal Minds and CSI).

CBS not having a great start to the season. NCIS down big year-on-year. People will blame SHIELD but its total viewership is only down by about a million year-on-year not sure they accounts for such a big drop in the demo. Maybe lots of its audience turned 50 over the summer? NCIS: LA down year-on-year as well by 0.4. Person of Interest not off to a great start down 0.6 year-on-year. Still this was a better night than last night.

The Fox comedy block predictably collapsed. Dads, Brooklyn and New Girl all down around 0.8 week-on-week. Not good.

The half hours for The Voice is impressive:

3.7/4.3/5.0/5.3

Guess people watch Shield then turned over to the Voice.

People were really hating The Goldbergs last night with one person saying that it looked like a D-grade version of The Wonder Years. I haven't seen Trophy Wife yet, but the viewers seems to embrace that show more. I think the main letdown is the title. When I saw that title, I immediately switched off - it was off putting.


I think CBS will be embarrassed that Chicago Fire has convincingly beaten their precious Persons of Interest. They were betting their bottom dollar that they will rule Tuesday night with the NCIS duo.


I have no idea why on earth FOX would give that shite Mindy show a second chance. It was never funny and it did horrendously in the ratings. I suppose they didn't have good comedy pilots this year, so Mindy got the save.

Those aren't entirely unusual half hours.

PUT levels increase in the US at 8:30 (and again in the 9PM hour) so its far from unusual for these two hour reality shows to noticeably grow over the course of their slot. Monday's half hours for The Voice for example were 4.2 / 4.8 / 5.3 / 5.5 so not entirely dissimilar although the stronger 8PM competition certainly seems to have dented it.

Half hours for SHIELD – 4.5 / 4.6

I imagine that much like Go On last year The Goldbergs will prove to be all lead-in and ABC have more than enough on the bench that they shouldn't consider picking up a back 9 for a show that's all lead-in. We'll see what the quarter hours are like though.


It depends entirely upon how cynical you want to be about it.

There's a not unpopular opinion that Fox kept it because its a series created by and starring an Indian woman. I don't think that's entirely true although I imagine it didn't hurt. It did have a fair bit of critical love and I think they were hoping for some word of mouth season two growth (and maybe an awards nomination or two). None of that's come though. At this point I think they're going to have to shuffle the deck on the Tuesday comedies though. They can't continue with this block as it is long term.

A real shame about Brooklyn Nine Nine which I found enjoyable both weeks. I hope it picks up and survives along with new girl, mindy and dads on the other hand aren't good.

Really looking forward to the Thursday ratings, will CBS continue its comedy dominance or can NBC make up some ground. Especially looking forward to Crazy Ones and the Michael J Fox Show

Fool Britannia has moved to 6.30pm, with Celeb Chase now 7-8pm.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a tricky one to call. Like you I quite enjoyed the opening episodes. I think of the three Fox comedies not named New Girl Brooklyn Nine-Nine is probably the most likely to survive on Thursday night for the rest of the season. I still think they should probably switch Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Mindy on the schedule now and then completely relaunch the block after the World Series.

Much better.

X Factor still 110 minutes? (I'd still claw back 15-20 of them).

Yes, and Breathless getting that awful Pat & Cabbage lead-in. Really questionable scheduling I think.

Presumably the displaced Corrie episodes on the Friday will get a full hour the Sunday after (13 Oct) leading in to the first XF live results show.

I agree. A show can't rely on a strong lead-in forever to get the numbers. Then again, that didn't stop Castle being on the air for their fifth season and they are still after DWTS.



So far, CBS and FOX has had disappointing numbers for their sitcom. It's now ABC's turn and we all know Modern Family will do well but what about the others? Plus, I think Modern Family will be getting a 5.0 at best. Yes, it won an Emmy, but the general consensus wanted Louie as their champion. Super Fun Night will either do very well (because of Rebel Wilson) or crash and burn and of course, it's off the Modern Family lead-in. The Middle will have stagnating numbers and I can't imagine Back In The Game starting off well.

I would have easily said in May that CBS comedies will easily thrash NBC comedies on Thursday. However, after CBS has recently returned down or started off disappointingly, the gap between the two networks might not be that big after all. I am worried for Parks and Recreation though, going up against TBBT. I am just hoping it holds well. I wonder if Sean Saves The World and The Michael J. Fox Show will bring NBC to ratings glory or stumble once again.

As for ABC, Once spinoff will do average, Grey's will erode but still premiere well and Scandal might see a huge year-on-year improvement, considering the huge hype and growing fanbase from last season.

Well, I'm sure they probably can't change it now as they've probably done the edit (talking about X Factor here). Breathless could end up building on the lead-in but the signs aren't great. I think 4m at best for that.

Regarding Corrie, wouldn't that put Surprise, Surprise back to 6pm?

I would hope they get the scheduling right for 12/13 October - X Factor should only be 2 hours on Saturday, and an hour on Sunday.

Homeland 3 back on Sunday October 06 @ 21:00 on Channel 4.

London's Burning was moved by David Liddiment, by 1998 high up at ITV, who took against the show when he was at LWT and tried, but failed, to bring then producer Paul Knight into line. Knight wouldn't play ball and later quit the series, but Liddiment always resented London's Burning and wanted to kill it - which he eventually did. The move to Saturdays was the first part of that.


I cannot believe how few people - especially those high up at ITV - are aware how weak Holby City is at the moment. It's like watching paint dry and is lucky to be hanging on to the audience it's got. A completely wasted opportunity for ITV to diminsh a long-standing BBC show that's quietly floundering in EastEnders' shadow ...

Cleverly, ITV gets the 10 minute lead over SCD on the 6th October. That will definetely affect SCD's ratings that week. BBC a bit slow there really. The News at 25 minutes is too long. They could have, and should have, started Countryfile at 6.05 and had SCD start at 7.05. For the first week they could have had a highlights section from the first two dances of each celebrity.

serves the BBC right. They are like a waddling duck with a splinter up its arse this year! If you fired a gun at it it would just quack rather than run!

Castle has been the little show that could for ABC though and it should be noted that despite the massive declines in Dancing with the Stars its held onto a solid audience. Its not a major hitter by any means but I don't think its as lead-in dependent as it might appear. I suspect they could (and probably should) shift it to Tuesday night mid season and it'd hold up freeing up that Monday 10PM slot. Not that, that's an especially great slot for them now.


It should be noted that Super Fun Night doesn't start for another week. Modern Family will get an hour long return tonight which should help to boost its numbers as well. Last time it aired for an hour it scored a 6.1 but that was a couple of seasons ago now when it was still being universally praised. I think the bubble has burst a little since then. Also worthy of note about Super Fun Night is that ABC aren't airing (the truly awful) pilot. Its run will kick-off with its second episode. That's rarely a great sign for a new show.

Back in the Game (while being incredibly disappointing) has a relatively cushy slot. Its not really against any big hitters at 8:30 and is in a nice sandwich between The Middle and Modern Family. It has a lot of potential to surprise tonight.


Parks & Rec is still going to get crushed there is absolutely no doubt about that which is a shame because its by far the stronger hour on Thursday night (both Parks and Big Bang will return with hour long episodes). The 9PM battle is going to be incredibly interesting to see play out though particularly over the long term. Both Michael J Fox and Robin Williams have been stuck with potentially deadly lead-ins so who knows how all of this is going to play out. For what its worth I think there's more good will toward Michael J Fox than Robin Williams. Whether that transfers to better numbers is anyone's guess. The way CBS has started the season though I don't think I'd want to be betting big on The Crazy One (which is a hit and miss pilot anyway).

BBC1's programme has the equally awful Waterloo Road as a lead-in so that 9pm slot should be fair game.

No. According to BBC Media Centre "Waterloo Road" is one of Britains longest running and **ahem! wait for it*** MOST POPULAR drama series".

Its really strange because theres been already a lot of promotion for the paradise (much more than last yr) so I assumed it was close but at this rate it could be a month away? You are right I think they wanted to put it on sundays 8pm but they were probably betting on x factor continuing its downward trajectory???????? Shame because the paradise really would suit on sundays. The good thing though is the bbc already seem to be heavily promoting it..... I've seen the trailers on tv so much in the last two days.

Yet I have not seen to date, one single trailer for Truckers.

I'm starting to wonder if this is a real show or just a fever dream created by the ratings thread. Have we just commissioned our own show? And if so surely we could have done better...

AlexiR, I'm not sure if you posted this already but what pilots did you like for this season of US tv?