Ratings Watch: The NCIS Franchise Remains Strong
It was a good week for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. All three of CBS’ NCIS series made the top 10 for the week ending March 15, when three days’ worth of DVR and VOD usage is included. In the so-called “Live + 3” ratings, NCIS was No. 3 (19.1 million), while newbie NCIS: New Orleans was No. 7 (15.2 million) and NCIS: Los Angeles was No. 10 (13.4 million). You’d think the Navy would have its act together by now, but clearly there’s plenty of fictional crime left to be mined.
ABC’s The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special squeaked into the Top 25 with 10.7 million viewers in Live + 3, but that was down from last year’s 12.3 million viewers. The actual Bachelor finale did closer to 2014’s finale, averaging 10.5 million (vs. 10.9 million) in Live + 3.
AMC’s Better Call Saul is accomplishing a rare feat: More viewers are watching the show in the three days that follow its initial telecast than are actually watching live. In Live + 3, the show averages 5.2 million viewers – up from 2.6 million live + same day. That’s a 103% lift.
Also at AMC, The Walking Dead was the only show last week to add at least 5 million more viewers via DVR/VOD in the three days that followed its initial airing. NBC’s The Blacklist was No. 2, with 4.4 million more viewers watching in the days that followed its Thursday run.
The top cable show not on AMC was TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles, averaging 5.1 million viewers in Live + 3.
According to data, the least-watched program of the week in Nielsen-rated primetime (not including PBS or minor broadcast networks like My Network TV, MeTV or Antenna TV) was the March 12 episode of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show, which was seen by only 1,000 people.
Here are the Top 25 programs in primetime for the week ending March 15, 2015.
RANK |
SHOW & NETWORK |
LIVE+3 |
WATCHED |
1 |
The Big Bang Theory CBS |
20 |
16.1 |
2 |
Empire Fox |
19.2 |
14.9 |
3 |
NCIS CBS |
19.1 |
16.2 |
4 |
The Walking Dead AMC |
19 |
13.8 |
5 |
The Voice (Monday) NBC |
15.9 |
14 |
6 |
The Voice (Tuesday) NBC |
15.2 |
13.7 |
7 |
NCIS: New Orleans CBS |
14.8 |
12.6 |
8 |
Blue Bloods CBS |
14.3 |
11.1 |
9 |
Scorpion CBS |
13.5 |
10.6 |
10 |
NCIS: Los Angeles CBS |
13.4 |
10.7 |
11 |
Criminal Minds CBS |
13.2 |
10.4 |
12 |
Madam Secretary CBS |
12.9 |
11.3 |
13 |
CSI: Cyber CBS |
12.4 |
9.7 |
14 |
The Blacklist NBC |
11.9 |
7.5 |
15 |
Hawaii Five-0 CBS |
11.8 |
9.4 |
17 |
The Odd Couple CBS |
11.6 |
10.3 |
18 |
Scandal ABC |
11.4 |
8.2 |
19 |
Chicago Fire NBC |
11.2 |
8.6 |
20 |
Person of Interest CBS |
11 |
8.7 |
22 |
American Idol (Wednesday) Fox |
10.9 |
9.7 |
24 |
Mom CBS |
10.8 |
9.1 |
25 |
The Bachelor: After the Final Rose ABC |
10.7 |
9.7 |
Total viewers; in millions |