Early Report Debunked: Gotham Ratings Strong, The Big Bang Theory Takes Monday

UPDATE: The HP numbers are almost entirely wrong. Here’s a more accurate look at the numbers.

The original story follows.

Last night’s series premiere of Gotham drew a 5.7 rating, almost double what Fox’s Almost Human managed during its premiere last year in the same time slot, but still not enough to overcome Monday Night Football or The Big Bang Theory, according to Headline Planet.

The site, which isn’t one of the key analysis sites for such numbers, doesn’t give a number to those ratings, although last year Almost Human delivered a 3.1 rating last year for 9.1 million viewers.

By comparison, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. delivered a 4.6 — 11.9 million viewers — in its premiere episode last year. It was one of the highest-rated premieres of the year and continued to be considered a ratings success for the network even though the numbers dipped fairly consistently throughout the year from that initial high — something which may happen with Gotham as well, unless it manages to impress casual fans more than S.H.I.E.L.D. did.

Given the fact that Monday is a big TV night — as football and Big Bang will attest — and that the ratings are calculated as a share of total viewership, it seems likely Gotham‘s audience was in the neighborhood of 12-15 million viewers. Final numbers will be in soon, and industry sites and trade publications will be more likely to have fuller numbers, so check back later today for a bit more solid information.

The Blacklist delivered about a half-million more viewers than S.H.I.E.L.D. did in its premiere last year, but it also goes to show how difficult it is to gauge total viewership based on a time slot: since it plays at 10 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., 12.58 million eyeballs was good for a 10 share.

The same report claims that Sleepy Hollow opened down about a third from last year’s premiere, to a still-respectable 3.8, which is likely below Fox’s expectations for the expensive drama.