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TV Ratings: ‘Quantum Leap’ Opens Modestly, ‘NCIS’ Hits Low
The 2022-23 broadcast season kicked off Monday with modest returns for NBC's 'Quantum Leap' and a slower than usual start for CBS' 'NCIS.'

TV Ratings: ‘Quantum Leap’ Opens Modestly, ‘NCIS’ Hits Low

Raymond Lee in ‘Quantum Leap.’Courtesy of Serguei Bachlakov/NBC

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NBC’s Quantum Leap didn’t jump out in the ratings Monday, instead pulling in so-so numbers for its debut. CBS’ NCIS, meanwhile, opened its 19th season with its smallest same-day audience ever.

Returning series on the broadcast networks Monday — the first night of the 2022-23 season — were uniformly down from their year-ago premieres. A double bill of Monday Night Football, with separate games running on ABC and ESPN/ESPN2, likely helped depress viewing on other networks.

Quantum Leap, a revival/sequel to the 1989-93 sci-fi series, opened with 3.35 million viewers and a 0.48 rating among adults 18-49 coming out of The Voice (6.12 million, 0.67). The opening for Quantum Leap is slightly behind that of Ordinary Joe (3.9 million, 0.52) in the same spot in 2021. Quantum Leap did a better job, however, of holding The Voice’s audience, retaining about 72 percent of the 18-49 rating for its lead-in versus less than half for Average Joe last year.

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NCIS drew 5.82 million viewers for its season premiere, down 31 percent from a year ago, for the show’s smallest same-day audience in its long history. Its 0.42 rating in the 18-49 demographic is also a series low. CBS’ other shows, The Neighborhood (4.76 million, 0.5), Bob Hearts Abishola (4.44 million, 0.43) and NCIS: Hawai’i (5.31 million, 0.4) also fell by double digits from last fall’s premieres.

Fox’s 911 (4.82 million viewers, 0.69 in adults 18-49) had the smallest declines among returning shows, dipping by 5 percent in viewers and 9 percent in the key ad demo versus last season’s premiere. The Cleaning Lady followed with 2.4 million viewers and a 0.35 in adults 18-49, off 24 percent from its 2021-22 average.

ABC’s Monday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings led all of primetime with 12.86 million viewers and a 3.81 in the key ad demo. ESPN and ESPN2 combined for 7.92 million viewers for the Buffalo Bills’ blowout of the Tennessee Titans, which kicked off at 7:15 p.m. ET.

Fox News led cable news coverage of the funeral of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, averaging 1.97 million viewers from 6 a.m.-1 p.m. ET. CNN averaged 1.52 million over the same span, and BBC America, carrying coverage from its parent network in the U.K., brought in 334,000. (Full figures for MSNBC weren’t available.)

For entertainment programming, a show’s same-day ratings typically represent less than half of its eventual, multiplatform audience. The rest will come via delayed viewing and streaming.

Follow THR.com/Ratings for more ratings news and numbers.