Tuesday TV Ratings: ‘NCIS’ & ‘This Is Us’ Divide Night, ‘FBI’ & ‘Most Wanted’ Hit Highs

Jim Halterman March 25, 2020, 12:00 pm

This Is Us Season 4 Finale — Ron Batzdorff/NBC

We need a hero. That’s the signal viewers are sending out if their TV viewing is any indication, as we saw again last night when CBS’s trio of procedural dramas — NCIS, FBI and spinoff FBI: Most Wanted — saw increased numbers for Tuesday night. In fact, both FBI series hit season highs while NCIS hit its second high of the season, the first being the February 12 episode, when it brought in 13. 37 million viewers.

For the night, NCIS easily came in first with total viewers while the season finale of NBC’s drama This Is Us took the lead in the 18-49 demo with a strong 1.7 rating. The episode answered questions about who was the baby mama for Kevin (Justin Hartley), what was actually said between brothers Kevin and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) to cause their rift and offered a few spoilery surprises for other characters. (See the recap below if you’ve already watched the episode)

'This Is Us' Finale: Randall & Kevin's Tension Reaches a Breaking Point in 'Strangers: Part Two' (RECAP)

Following This Is Us in the 10 pm hour, NBC’s new drama, Council of Dads had a lackluster premiere with a nearly 4 million viewer drop, which isn’t a good sign for the new series in its highly promoted first outing. Instead, FBI: Most Wanted won the hour in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo.

Here’s the breakdown for Tuesday, March 24, 2020 (numbers are fast-affiliate based):

Time	Show	Adults 18-49 rating	Total Viewers (millions)
8 p.m.	NCIS (CBS)	1.3	13.08
	The Conners (ABC)	1.1	6.39
	Ellen’s Game of Games (NBC)	1.4	6.29
	The Resident (Fox)	0.8	4.42
	The Flash – R (CW)	0.1	546,000
8:30 p.m.	Bless This Mess (ABC)	0.7	4.07
9 p.m.	This Is Us – F (NBC)	1.7	7.85
	FBI (CBS)	1.1	10.78
	mixed-ish (ABC)	0.6	2.99
	Empire (Fox)	0.7	2.79
	DC’s Legends of Tomorrow – R (CW)	0.1	413,000
9:30 p.m.	black-ish (ABC)	0.6	2.63
10 p.m.	FBI: Most Wanted (CBS)	1.0	9.48
	Council of Dads – P (NBC)	0.7	3.94
	For Life (ABC)	0.6	2.39