NBC Wins 2 Opening Nights of Fall Season for First Time in 25 Years

The Peacock is singing over “Voice,” “Blacklist” premieres

While ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” took most of the Tuesday night ratings headlines — including TheWrap’s — NBC has been setting its own records in the very young fall TV season.

NBC won the ratings war Tuesday with a solid time slot premiere of “The Voice” that led into an up-from-prior-year “Chicago Fire.” It also took Monday outright as “The Voice” debuted strong and “The Blacklist” premiered as the highest-rated drama across all networks in a year, only to be topped by “S.H.I.E.L.D.” the following night.

Combine those performances and NBC has now won the opening two nights of the fall season for the first time since 1988 — when it aired the Seoul Olympics — and the first time with entertainment programming in the history of People Meters, which date back to September 1987.

Also read: Ratings: ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Scores Biggest Drama Premiere in 4 Years (Update)

All four NBC telecasts on Monday and Tuesday are up versus premiere week last year in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, and in total viewers. Through those two nights, NBC is up 26 percent in ratings (4.3 vs. 3.4) and up 43 percent in total viewers (13.4 million vs. 9.4 million) year-over-year.

NBC earned a 4.0 rating in the key demo Tuesday (following a 4.6 Monday), its highest for a premiere week Tuesday in seven years. Its 38 percent margin of victory over No. 2 CBS is the biggest lead for any of the Big 4 networks on a premiere Tuesday in six years. The 12.5 million viewers was its biggest premiere-week Tuesday in 11 years.

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