NCIS is so popular, its reruns are higher rated than original competition
NCIS is so popular that Tuesday’s rerun of the long-running CBS crime drama had higher ratings than original episodes of other TV shows.
You knew NCIS was popular, but you probably didn’t know it was this popular.
The CBS series has been one of the most-watched shows on television for more than a decade, but this week proved it has unbelievable staying power. Tuesday’s NCIS repeat was watched by more people than the majority of new episodes on other networks.
The episode, “What Child Is This,” had 7.4 million live viewers. The only show that had more was a new installment of NBC‘s singing competition The Voice, which had 8.27 million people watching live.
That means NCIS did better than the premiere of NBC’s highly promoted Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways special, a fresh episode of FOX‘s reality TV sensation The Masked Singer, and the latest part of The CW‘s massive “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event.
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That, quite frankly, is insane. Reruns can draw a decent audience, as there’s usually a group of devoted fans who will watch any episode of their favorite show even if it isn’t new. But they’re not supposed to pull in ratings that would be considered excellent for a new episode!
For comparison, the one franchise on TV comparable to the NCIS franchise is NBC’s One Chicago trilogy. The midseason finales of those shows, back in November, topped out at 8.39 million live audience members.
That means Tuesday’s NCIS repeat had only about a million less people watching than the finales of broadcast TV’s other biggest property!
And that’s even crazier when you think about this: midseason finales typically draw more of an audience, because they’re specifically structured to do with things like cliffhangers and big plot twists. The NCIS episode aired this week was just an ordinary episode; in fact, it wasn’t even from the current season. “What Child Is This” is actually the holiday episode from NCIS Season 16.
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So more people are willing to tune into a year-old rerun of this series than they are to watch a lot of shows new—and that’s an incredible statistic. It’s not hard to see why the series has been on the air for almost two decades and doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon.