Their genres may be entirely different, but NCIS and This Is Us have helped make Tuesday one of television's most heated nights. They are two of TV's most popular series, and they are locked in a ratings battle.
This Is Us has come onto the scene establishing itself as a favorite among younger viewers. While the drama is a heavy hitter in the demos, NCIS has remained a winner in total viewers. Let's check in on the latest in the battle between two of network television's brightest stars.
Viewership Totals
This week's ratings showed NCIS handily coming out on top. The procedural brought in 12.33 million total viewers, per Deadline. Thus, making it this Tuesday's (November 12), most watched show of the night.
Unfortunately for NBC's tear-inducing drama, it did not break 10 million total viewers. That said, This Is Us did score a robust viewership of 8.46 million, but that still puts it at almost 4 million viewers behind NCIS' total viewership. While CBS' popular series may have won that portion, This Is Us garnered good news elsewhere.
Demo Ratings
This Is Us won in the demos. The drama was Tuesday night's highest-rated broadcast in the demos. It scored a steady 2.0 rating. NCIS did not do as well there.
The Mark Harmon series picked up a 1.4 rating. So, while NCIS had a sizable lead over This Is Us in total viewers, the NBC drama battled back in the demos. Making what NCIS did achieve all the more impressive is that it is in its sixteenth season. This Is Us is only in its third.
Lead-Ins and Lead Outs
This Is Us and NCIS may be in a heated ratings battle, but they do not face off directly. NCIS' time slot competitor at NBC is The Voice. This past week, the popular singing competition scored a 1.6 rating in the demos. While it beat out NCIS there, the CBS procedural handily beat it out in total viewers. The Voice scored 8.80 million in total viewership.
As for how well NCIS' lead out did, we have answers. CBS' new crime drama FBI did not entirely retain NCIS' lead-in numbers. It did maintain the majority of them. FBI lost a little over 3 million of the viewers that tuned in for NCIS.
FBI is This Is Us' direct timeslot competitor. In the battle against one another, FBI had the victory over This Is Us in total viewers. The series scored an impressive 9.12 million in total viewers. When it came to the demos, This Is Us' performance in the demos was nearly double FBI's. It scored a 1.1 rating.
How well did New Amsterdam do with This Is Us' lead-in? Pretty well. New Amsterdam only shed 2.41 million off of This Is Us' lead-in numbers, pulling in 6.05 million in total viewers. The bad news came in the demos, where the freshman medical drama only pulled in a 1.1 rating. A loss of nearly half of This Is Us' demo rating.
It is still early in the season. Having received a full-season order, New Amsterdam has time to turn that around. Similarly, it is still early in NCIS, and This Is Us' ratings battle. The midseason is fast-approaching and who knows what is in store for those shows then.
New episodes of NCIS air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. You can cry your eyes out watching This Is Us, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. Both shows are among the new programming that has arrived this fall and will be airing new throughout the midseason.
