Mindy Kaling vs. Ellen Barkin! Zooey Deschanel vs. Matthew Perry! Tuesday night unleashed a trio of new shows into competitive time slots: Fox’s Ben & Kate, CBS’ Vegas and — probably the most buzzed-about of the bunch — Fox’s The Mindy Project. Here’s how they stacked up.
First, Kaling’s debut disappointed a bit. The Mindy Project (4.7 million viewers, 2.4) was down 23 percent from last year’s Raising Hope premiere in this slot and dropped from its lead in. Still, Mindy Project fended off its 9:30 p.m. comedy rival, NBC’s The New Normal (5.2 million, 2.0). Mindy also performed better than Fox’s other new sitcom. At 8:30 p.m., Ben & Kate (4.2 million, 2.0) opened weak.
Both Mindy Project and Ben & Kate had the benefit of the same lead-in (weirdly). Fox aired a special New Girl (5.3 million, 2.7) at 8 p.m., then aired New Girl‘s official regular time-period debut at 9 p.m. (5.2 million, 2.7). Both episodes delivered the same demo number, down a steep 44 percent from last fall’s series premiere. The 9 p.m. New Girl tied NBC’s Go On (7.3 million, 2.7). The Matthew Perry comedy was down a bit this week, but NBC will gladly accept this outcome against the return of a tough rival. Oh, why can’t all these sitcoms just be friends? (Friends?).
At 10 p.m., CBS rolled out Vegas. I gotta confess: READ FULL STORY »
