TV Ratings: 'The Following' debuts strong, but CBS wins Monday

Kevin Bacon and "The Following" debuted to good ratings on Monday night.

Credit: FOX

Fast National ratings for Monday, January 21, 2013.

The Kevin Bacon/Kevin Williamson serial killer drama "The Following" got off to a solid start in the ratings — the best for any new drama this season other than NBC's "Revolution," which had a much stronger lead-in — which helped make FOX a strong second place to CBS in the Monday night ratings. Meanwhile, the CW's "The Carrie Diaries" dipped a bit from its soft debut last week, and the numbers of NBC's "Deception" continued to slide.

For the night, CBS averaged a 3.0 rating among adults 18-49 and 10.34 million viewers overall, while FOX did a 2.7 demo rating with 9.43 million viewers. ABC was third (2.3, 7.9 million), followed by NBC (2.0, 5.25 million) and the CW (0.4, 1.04 million).

8 p.m. -- A new "How I Met Your Mother" and a "Big Bang Theory" repeat combined to average a 3.4 demo rating and 10.27 million viewers for CBS. The first hour of "The Bachelor" (2.5, 7.54 million) put ABC in second in the demo, followed by a new "Bones" (2.3, 8.47 million), up about 9 percent over last week's numbers. (Perhaps it benefited from the metric tonnage of "The Following" ads FOX aired during Sunday's NFC Championship Game?) The first hour of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" did a 2.3 and 6.06 million viewers, while "The Carrie Diaries" (0.5, 1.28 million) was down about 17 percent in the demo and down 20 percent among viewers overall.

9 p.m. -- New episodes of "Two Broke Girls" and "Mike & Molly" combined (3.5, 11.16 million) to win the hour for CBS, but "The Following" premiere (3.1, 10.38 million) was up 35 percent over its "Bones" lead-in, and the audience was virtually identical from the first half-hour to the second, which suggests those who tuned in liked what they saw. The second hours of "Bachelor" and "Biggest Loser" both pulled a 2.5 demo rating, though the ABC show was watched by 7.42 million viewers, and the NBC one by 6.09 million. A new "90210" (0.4, 788,000) was in fifth place for the CW.

10 p.m. -- CBS won the hour with "Hawaii Five-0" (2.2, 9.58 million), though the episode was down slightly from last week's chose-your-own-ending stunt. ABC was second with "Castle" (2.0, 8.72 million), while "Deception" (1.3, 3.61 million) dropped another 19 percent from last week's low number.

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

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Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com