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On a Monday night packed with reality show premieres across broadcast TV, NBC’s new scripted series “The Irrational” got a strong start to the fall season by debuting to 3.81 million viewers, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures.
The premiere of the new drama, which stars Jesse L. Martin as a behavioral science professor who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases, doubled the viewership of several unscripted series also premiering during Monday’s primetime, including Fox’s reboot of “Kitchen Nightmares,” which drew in 1.58 million viewers at 8 p.m., and Fox’s “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” which brought in 1.52 million viewers at 9 p.m.
Ratings-wise, “The Irrational” launch was on par with both of Fox’s new reality series. Whereas “The Irrational” scored rating of 0.34 in the key broadcast demographic among adults 18-49 during its 10 p.m. debut, “Kitchen Nightmares,” nabbed a 0.35 rating at 8 p.m. and “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” secured a 0.33 rating at 9 p.m.
As expected, “The Voice” Season 24 — which welcomed new coach Reba McEntire to the team — belted its way to the top of the night’s premieres with 6.26 million viewers and a 0.60 rating, quadrupling the viewership of “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.”
“The Voice” would have scored the night’s highest viewership and rating if not for ABC’s Monday Night Football, which drew in 13.72 million viewers and a rating of 3.84 in the key demo during the airing of the Eagles vs. Buccaneers game, which kicked off at 7:15 p.m and continued through 10:17 p.m. Following the game, the network maintained its momentum for its post-game “SportsCenter” program, which drew in 3.13 million viewers and a 0.80 rating score.
Elsewhere, CBS celebrated the 20th anniversary of “NCIS” with a mini-marathon running from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. that featured the first “NCIS” episode and its original cast, the Season 2 finale and a notable Season 19 episode featuring the series’ current cast. Together, the three back-to-back episodes averaged a total viewership of 2.74 million and a rating of 0.19.
Following ABC’s viewership and ratings win, in the 8 p.m. hour “The Voice” scored the second-highest viewership and rating of the timeslot as it averaged 6.32 million viewers and a 0.62 rating from 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Both measurements exceeded that of Fox’s “Kitchen Nightmares,” which drew in 1.58 million viewers and scored a 0.35 rating, the first hour of CBS’ “NCIS” special, which drew in 3.20 million viewers and a 0.22 rating, and The CW’s airing of “Son of a Critch” and “Run the Burbs,” which averaged 257,500 viewers and a 0.05 rating during the hour.
In the 9 p.m. hour, “The Voice” maintained its lead — with the exception of ABC’s Monday Night Football — as it averaged 6.20 million viewers and a 0.59 rating. “The Voice” led the pack in comparison to Fox’s “Special Forces,” which drew in 1.52 million viewers and scored a 0.33 rating, the second hour of the “NCIS” mini-marathon, which brought in 2.77 million viewers and a 0.18 rating, as well as The CW’s airings of “Children Ruin Everything” and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” which together averaged 158,000 viewers and a 0.03 rating.
With Fox nor the CW airing 10 p.m. primetime programming, ABC continued to score the highest viewership and rating as the game wrapped up with 5.17 million viewers and a rating of 1.43. “The Irrational” on NBC came in second place both in viewership and rating with 3.81 million viewers and a 0.34 rating while the third hour of the “NCIS” special followed with 2.26 million viewers and a 0.17 rating.
