NBC's 'Voice' Belts Out Ratings

The-Voice

NBC's aggressively marketed new singing competition series "The Voice" hit a big note -- the best-rated premiere of a new show this season.

The two-hour show, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. -- an "American Idol" wannabe, according to critics -- muscled a big Nielsen 5.2 rating/13 share among 18-49 viewers.

"The Voice" numbers were the best for any new show going back to February 2010, when CBS' "Undercover Boss" had a strong opening, thanks to its premiere after the Super Bowl.

Better news for NBC -- in its efforts to climb out of fourth place overall, it bested other big Tuesday night shows: Fox's "Glee" running a special 90-minute episode from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., which saw a 3.4/10, down from a 3.8 rating the week before; ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" result show turned in a 3.5/9 -- up from a 2.9 rating the previous week.

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The extra 30 minutes of "Glee" at 9 p.m. to 9:30 pm. -- along with "Stars" -- gave "The Voice" its lowest half-hour of the night, a 4.6 rating/12 share. Both "Glee" and "Stars" each earned a 3.4 rating during that time frame.

During the 10 p.m. hour -- with little competition -- "The Voice" grew to a 5.5/14. Next was ABC's "Body of Proof," which landed with a respectable 2.3/6 -- down a bit from the 2.4 a week before.

NBC also had a good story to tell with "The Biggest Loser: Couples" at 8 p.m., which earned a 2.7 rating/8 share versus a 2.1 rating its last time out.

CBS, in rerun mode for its two "NCIS" shows, suffered a bit. "NCIS" was at a 2.0/6 and "NCIS: Los Angeles" at 2.0/5. Both were down versus last week's reruns, where "NCIS" was at a 2.4 rating and "NCIS: Los Angeles" was at a 2.2.

NBC easily finished first for the night among 18-49 viewers with a 4.3 rating/11 share, up from a 2.4 rating a week ago. Fox was second at 3.0/8, two-tenths of a rating point higher than a week ago. ABC came in third at 2.8/7 versus a 2.1 rating, with CBS in fourth at 1.9/5, against a 2.2 rating. Univision was at 1.4/4, the same as the week before. Telemundo was at 0.8/2 and CW at 0.6/2 week-to-week.

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