NCIS: New Orleans ratings were normal as Season 6, Episode 4 didn’t make a splash as big as the episode. See the latest NCIS: New Orleans numbers.
NCIS: New Orleans tackled a hot-button issue this week, but the CBS series didn’t see its choice of topic translate into hot ratings.
Tuesday’s episode “Overlooked” had a slightly “ripped from the headlines” feel, as the NOLA squad invested a secret government detention center that was holding illegal immigrants.
While the plot was more timely than most, that didn’t bring more viewers to the show.
The installment recorded 6.62 million people watching live, which was actually less than the 6.74 million who had turned in the week before. It was a loss of 0.12, or 120,000 viewers.
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So did people tune out because of what could be perceived as a more political story? Or were they just not watching this week for other reasons?
Whatever was behind the downturn, it wasn’t the end of the world for NCIS: New Orleans. It was still ranked fifth out of the 12 shows on broadcast TV this Tuesday, Oct. 15.
That puts it within the Top 5, and isn’t that far away from what the show did last week, so it’s possible the numbers could go right back up with the next new episode.
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NCIS: NOLA is still head and shoulders over its direct competition in the 10 p.m. time slot. The veteran crime drama is easily beating NBC‘s sophomore medical drama New Amsterdam (which had 4.98 million people) and ABC‘s freshman sci-fi series Emergence (2.70 million), while other networks switch over to local news at that hour.
Being able to win its time slot by more than 1.5 million viewers is a huge plus as the series looks to be renewed for Season 7.
If there’s anything to keep an eye on, it’s that NCIS: New Orleans is CBS’s lowest-rated show on Tuesdays, and it’s not close. The original NCIS is in double digits, while sophomore crime drama FBI is in the high 8 million. Will CBS expect this show to perform more on par with its lead-ins or let it be considering its lack of competition?
It’s disappointing that more people didn’t watch “Overlooked” as it was one of the show’s more relevant episodes in recent memory, but the NCIS: New Orleans ratings are still good, even if not quite where they’d like to be. Perhaps the show will gain more of an audience with the increase of interest in its lead-in FBI.
NCIS: New Orleans Season 6 continues next Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 10 p.m. on CBS. What have you thought of the season so far? Let us know in the comments.