Though not intuitive, it is apparently clear that fans of NBC’s “The Voice” would rather close their nights with a James Spader drama than an additional music competition series.
Leading out of NBC’s flagship, the season four premiere of “The Sing-Off” improved upon its previous season premiere (from September 2011) but delivered weaker ratings than any of this season’s “The Blacklist” episodes. Prior to this week, the hit new drama aired out of “The Voice.”
From 9-11PM, “The Sing-Off” averaged a 2.4 rating with 8.36 million viewers. Reduced to an hour for its live semifinal performances, lead-in “The Voice” delivered a 3.4 with 12.85 million viewers.
There was a meaningful wave of initial interest in NBC’s a capella competition. From 9-9:30PM (the latter twenty eight minutes of which belonged to “The Sing-Off”), NBC averaged a healthy 2.9 adults 18-49 rating with 10.05 million viewers. Though the show did not open with as much heat as “The Blacklist” normally does, it did a respectable job of keeping eyeballs focused on their television sets.
Unfortunately, the show consistently lost viewers throughout the night. The numbers dipped to a 2.5 rating and 8.62 million viewers from 9:30-10PM, before hitting a 2.3 with 7.73 million from 10-10:30PM and a 2.1 with 7.04 million from 10:30-11PM.
Underwhelming, the numbers were good enough to let NBC tout growth over the season three premiere and celebrate a victory in all six of Monday’s half-hour timeslots.