‘MasterChef Junior’ Ratings Heat Up, ‘NCIS’, ‘About A Boy’ & Oscars Special Down, ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ Rises
Something was truly cooking on MasterChef Junior (1.8/5) last night and it wasn’t small fry. Coming off a ratings tumble last week and heading into next week’s Season 3 finale, the Gordon Ramsay-hosted show sliced things down to a final two contestants. MasterChef Junior also saw a boiling 29% leap among adults 18-49 from its February 10 show. That 4-week high was also complimented by an 18% rise in total viewership form last week to 5.4 million – also a 4-week high for the show. The heat from Ramsey and the kids warmed up Fox’s other offerings of the night with New Girl (1.4/4) and The Mindy Project (1.1/3) up 8% and 10% respectively from their February 10 shows.
CBS was the highest-rated network of the night with a 2.0/6 among the 18-49s and the most-watched with 13.706 million tuning in, but it certainly took some hits. With the return of Joe Spano in his recurring FBI agent role, last night’s NCIS (2.5/8) had a 14% drop from last week. The highest-rated show of the night, NCIS was also the most-watched with an audience of 17.71 million. Spinoff NCIS: New Orleans (2.0/6) was down 13% from its February 10 show, while Person Of Interest (1.6/5) was even.
It was a dip and rise on The CW last night with The Flash (1.4/4) down 7% from last week with Supernatural (0.9/3) up 13%. For the latter, that was its highest-rated episode since the mid-season finale of December 9 last year.
While CBS was top dog in the ratings battle on Tuesday, NBC was once again tied for last place with The CW with 1.1/3 in fast nationals. Unlike last week, that’s behind all of the other Big 4 as well as Univision, which had a 1.2/4 last night. That’s a hard place for the Peacock on a night of all originals. Heading toward its series finale next week, NBC’s double shot of Parks And Recreation saw Paul Rudd, Sam Elliot and Nick Kroll all show up and Bill Murray make a memorial service appearance last night. Even with more than a few loose ends being wrapped up for the Amy Poehler show, the 8 PM episode bopped up 9% from last week to 1.2/4 while the 8:30 PM rose 10% to 1.1/3. Coming out of that, Marry Me (0.8/2) was even with its February 10 show, as was 10 PM’s Chicago Fire (1.4/4). At 9:30 PM, About A Boy (0.7/2) was down a harsh 22% to hit a series low in preliminary numbers.
In its second week on Tuesday, Fresh Off The Boat (1.9/6) saw higher water for ABC. The freshman comedy based on
restaurateur Eddie Huang’s 2103 memoir rose 12% among adults 18-49 from its time slot debut. That rise undoubtedly provided some comfort to the debut of Repeat After Me (1.4/4) at 8:30 PM. Based on a bit from The Ellen DeGeneres Show and fronted by Wendi McLendon-Covey from The Goldbergs, the unscripted Repeat After Me had the likes of Grey’s Anatomy Ellen Pompeo and Scandal’s Scott Foley show up in hidden camera scenarios with unsuspecting citizens. It also had a pretty soft opening. With half-hour unscripted shows being such rare birds, the closest comparisons are to recent comedies and the comparison isn’t good. Repeat After Me was down 22% from the 8:30 PM Fresh Off The Boat of last week and down 12% from the now cancelled Selfie’s 8 PM debut on September 30 last year.
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The rest of ABC’s night saw the second to last episode of the 8-episode run of Marvel’s Agent Carter (1.4/4) stay even with last week’s episode. With glimpses of a sort of an Iron Man future, MAC was followed by more big screeners with the Countdown To The Oscars: 15 Movies That Changed American Cinema (0.8/2) special at 10 PM. Hosted by GMA’s Robin Roberts, the 1-hour show was down 19% from the 2014 version that aired on Thursday February 27 at 8 PM.
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