“Off the Map” Ratings Hold Fairly Steady, Top CBS’ “Blue Bloods”

The numbers themselves are still very disappointing, but ABC can at least exclaim that its new entry “Off the Map” held up in the adults 18-49 demo despite a weaker lead-in Wednesday night.

The new drama garnered a 2.1 rating, down only slightly from last week’s 2.2. The viewership loss was a bit more significant, however, as the show fell from an average of more than 7.5 million to 5.84 million.

Still, the performance was enough to compete well with NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” and defeat CBS’ relocated “Blue Bloods,” two shows that seemed to suffer from their head-to-head competition. The most successful “L&O” spin-off declined to a 2.3 rating with 6.89 million viewers. “Blue Bloods,” meanwhile, experienced no major benefit from its move to the seemingly more desirable Wednesday timeslot; it averaged a 2.0 rating with 12.81 million viewers.

Though CBS cannot ignore that high viewer total, it certainly has to question devoting a Wednesday night slot to a show that only delivered a 2.0 demo rating, especially since it could basically achieve that mark on Friday.