Update: The overnights were not misleading – the time period premiere of “The Following” greatly disappointed Monday.
After scoring a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating with 7.82 million viewers for its first season finale and a 4.4 with 11.18 million viewers for its post-NFC Championship season two premiere, “The Following” managed just a 2.0 with 6.02 million viewers this week.
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If the goal of premiering the second season of “The Following” after last week’s NFC Championship game was to drive a one-time ratings boost, FOX succeeded.
Though it turned away a significant portion of its lead-in, last week’s “The Following” still pulled a series high 4.4 adults 18-49 rating with 11.18 million viewers.
IF FOX’s hope, however, was that “The Following” would convert those curious new viewers into regulars, the experiment was a failure.
Monday’s “The Following,” the first season two episode to air in the show’s regular timeslot, delivered a mere 4.5 overnight household rating, which forecasts an adults 18-49 rating in the low-2s.
Roughly on par with the 4.7 delivered by the penultimate season one episode, the rating, while not great, would not necessarily be considered disastrous in a vacuum.
But within the context of a buzzworthy series that just received high-profile exposure, a return to the show’s late season one levels–which were already well below the numbers being delivered at the beginning of season one–is irrefutably disappointing.
