‘Scorpion,’ ‘NCIS: New Orleans,’ ‘Madam Secretary’ & ‘Stalker’ get full-season orders

Last week on the podcast, Fienberg and I wondered what was taking so long for CBS to give full-season orders to “Scorpion” and “NCIS: New Orleans,” given how well they had performed so far in this young season. (“Scorpion” in particular did very well last week recovering from a very poor lead-in from “The Millers” season premiere.) It appears CBS was simply waiting to get all its new drama ducks in a row, because tonight the network announced that all four of its newcomers – those two plus “Madam Secretary” and (yes) “Stalker” – had been given full-season orders.

Airing after the original “NCIS,” “NCIS: New Orleans” is unsurprisingly TV's most-watched new series, averaging over 18 million viewers a week and a 2.8 rating among adults 18-49. “Scorpion” has been lower in overall viewers, but higher among young adults (15.17 million and 3.6, respectively). “Madam Secretary” has had to deal with unpredictable scheduling due to football, but is averaging 13.53 million viewers and a 1.8 demo rating, while “Stalker” is averaging 9.49 million viewers and a 2.1 in the demo.

Last week finally gave us this season's first cancellation (ABC's “Manhattan Love Story”), but we haven't had many full-season pick-ups to date: “Gotham” on FOX, “Black-ish” on ABC (plus “How to Get Away with Murder,” but only in that they're producing all 15 episodes that Viola Davis agreed to in advance), and “The Flash” and “Jane the Virgin” at the CW. With CBS having spoken up on most of its freshman class (new comedy “The McCarthys” won't even debut until Thursday), that leaves NBC to make decisions on the likes of “CopMom MomCop” and “Bad Judge.”

CBS has a number of high-profile shows on the shelf, including the final season of “The Mentalist” and the Vince Gilligan-created, David Shore-produced “Battle Creek.” We'll see where they wind up now that two obvious timeslots (Wednesday at 10 for the former, Monday at 9 for the latter) will be held a while longer by their current occupants.

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