Tuesday Night Ratings: Muppets Falls, SHIELD Rises

Tuesday night was a mixed bag in the ratings department overall, and even for individual networks. ABC, for example, saw a 31% drop for The Muppets after a pilot that saw a mixed reaction (but a lot of viewers) with a 2.0 rating and 5.8 million viewers. The series saw a sizable jump in the Live+3 ratings last week, which takes into account Hulu, DVR, and On-Demand viewing in the three days after airing, so it could make up the loss there.

Interestingly, with a lower rating and less viewers than that, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s season three premiere is considered a victory with a 1.7 and 4.8 million viewers. The premiere was a step up from the entire second half of season two, hence the optimism for it.

Even better for genre shows, though, was Limitless, the CBS drama that continues the world of the Bradley Cooper film. At a 1.9 with 9.6 million viewers, the most notable point about the show is that it kept 100% of its 18-35 audience.

Rounding out the genre entertainment, Fox’s horror-comedy Scream Queens dropped about 15% from its premiere, at a 1.4 and 3.6 million viewers.

And if you were curious, yes, NCIS is still a juggernaut, with 16 million viewers, the most-watched show of Tuesday night by a wide margin.