It’s not you, Zooey, it’s them!
After her Fox comedy New Girl spent four weeks on hiatus, Zooey Deschanel’s freshman series returned lower in the ratings Tuesday night. New Girl was seen by 7.5 million viewers and delivered a 3.5 rating, down 19 percent from its last original on Oct. 4. That number still improved significantly upon its Glee (7.4 million, 2.9) lead in and was better than lead-out Raising Hope (5.5 million, 2.5).
Though it’s tough not to focus on New Girl this morning given the amount of attention Fox’s decision to bench the show received, Glee dropped the same 19 percent from its last original on Oct. 4. In other words: New Girl‘s newbie status probably didn’t result in the series being inordinately impacted by the break. News of Deschanel’s separation from Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard broke only a few hours before the show returned, an unexpected wave of headlines that doesn’t appear to have played a factor here. Fox called the numbers “normal post-baseball declines.”
CBS won the night with NCIS (19.4 million, 3.9), NCIS: LA (15.6 million, 3.4) and Unforgettable (11.3 million, 2.3), all down 5 to 8 percent.
Though the focus will be on New Girl dropping this morning, ABC’s new comedy Man Up (1.8) is an actual trouble spot, down another 10 percent. Lead-in Last Man Standing (2.6) was down the same. The rest of ABC’s night had sunny news: Dancing With the Stars (15.2 million, 2.8) was up 8 percent and Body of Proof (10.1 million, 2.0) climbed 11 percent.
NBC also posted gains, with Biggest Loser (6.4 million, 2.3) and Parenthood (5.3 million, 2.0) up a hearty 15 and 10 percent, respectively.
On The CW, 90210 (1.5 million, 0.7) dipped a bit from its last airing, while Ringer (1.8 million, 0.8) was steady.
