“Houdini & Doyle,” Fox’s latest drama featuring mismatched crime solvers, opened to tiny numbers on Monday, a night that also featured a solid season-ender for CBS’ “NCIS: Los Angeles,” which pulled even with NBC’s “Blindspot” in young adults and was the night’s most-watched scripted program overall.
“Houdini,” a period drama based loosely on the real-life friendship between Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle, mustered a 0.7 rating/2 share in adults 18-49 and 2.6 million viewers overall in the 9 o’clock hour, according to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen. The American-Candadian-British co-production earned only half the same-day demo average of “Lucifer” in the timeslot this year for Fox, and the 0.7 is the lowest to date for any scripted drama debut on the Big Four — a tick below the 0.8 for ABC’s “Of Kings and Prophets” in March.
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Leading into “Houdini & Doyle,” “Gotham” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 3.6 million viewers overall) held at last week’s number.
Elsewhere, CBS returned to a two-hour Monday comedy block, starting with a pair of original “Mike & Molly” episodes (1.3/5 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall at 8 and 1.4/5 in 18-49, 7.2 million viewers overall at 8:30) that matched the rating for the final couple of “Supergirl” episodes in the time period last month. A special repeat of “The Big Bang Theory” followed at 9 p.m. (1.5/5 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall), with an original “The Odd Couple” faring adequately behind it (1.3/4 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall).
Closing out the night for CBS, “NCIS: Los Angeles” (1.3/4 in 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall) was on the high end of its range as it concluded its seventh season. It tied with NBC’s “Blindspot” in 18-49 — its most competitive finish of the season — while winning among the broadcasters in 18-34 (0.8/3) and total viewers.
For “Blindspot,” this matched its low in the demo, though the show will finish as the top-rated new show of the season in adults 18-49. On average, it rises in L+3 by 1.2 ratings points in adults 18-49 and by 3.8 million viewers.
Earlier for NBC, “The Voice” (2.1/7 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall) was back on the upswing, rising a tenth from last week. ABC’s competing “Dancing With the Stars” (1.8/6 in 18-49, 11.6 million viewers overall) held steady, finishing 0.3 behind in 18-49 and just 0.1 off the lead in 18-34 (1.1 vs. 1.2) while remaining Monday’s No. 1 program in total viewers. At 10 p.m. for ABC, “Castle” (1.0/4 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) was off a tick from last week, placing third in most categories.
CW remained low on Mondays with “Reign” (0.3/1 in 18-49, 1.0 million viewers overall) and “Jane the Virgin” (0.3/1 in 18-49, 0.9 million viewers overall).
