It may be too early to call it NBC’s savior, but the debut of “The Voice” pulled in huge numbers for the network last night. Up against stiff competition in the form of “Dancing with the Stars” and a 90-minute “Glee,” the new singing competition not only won its time slot, it tallied more viewers in the 18-49 demographic than any show on television last night.
The two-hour show pulled a 5.1 rating/13 share in the demo and 11.8 million viewers, according to early estimates. NBC says that it was the top-rated series premiere on a major network since Undercover Boss debuted following the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, 2010. Each 18-49 ratings point equals 1.3 million.
Head to head, The Voice beat Glee (4.6 versus 3.4 from 9-9:30) and Dancing With the Stars(4.9 versus 3.5 from 9-10). It improved the time period versus NBC’s season average in the demo by 89 percent (5.1 versus 2.7) and in viewers by 60 percent (11.7 million versus 7.3 million). [EW]
Like I said, NBC isn’t out of the toilet just yet. The last NBC show to debut with numbers like these was “American Gladiators” in 2008, and that show blew goats. But I don’t think it’s really fair to compare the two shows. Most of the people who watched the debut of the “Gladiators” remake were tuning in out of either nostalgia or irony. The gig was up as soon as we saw that they totally messed up Assault. I mean, searching in a sandbox for a crossbow arrow? WTF?
