‘The Voice,’ NBC’s singing contest, faltered with US TV viewers in its new autumn slot, drawing smaller audiences among key viewers than its two previous season openers and setting an easy target for its rival on Fox, ‘The X Factor,’ when it returns later this week.
Entertainment | Celebrity
‘The Voice’ falters, setting easy target for ‘X Factor’
Draws smaller audiences among key viewers than its two previous season openers
- Reuters
- Published: 10:24 September 12, 2012
- Image Credit: AP
- Christina Aguilera is a judge on "The Voice."
Early Nielsen data on Tuesday showed that 12 million Americans watched the two-hour season debut of ‘The Voice’ on a night of tough competition with Fox and football.
That was enough to give NBC a Monday night win in both total viewers and in the 18-49 demographic coveted by advertisers.
But the third-season debut for ‘The Voice’ was down from a Super Bowl-fuelled 17.7 million for February 2012’s opener, and the 12 million was in line with ‘X Factor’s’ season average for 2011.
A drop for ‘The Voice’ had been expected, but the 18 to 49-year-old audience was also smaller than in its two prior debuts.
Nevertheless, ‘The Voice’ trounced the finales of summer cooking shows ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ (6.2 million) and ‘MasterChef,’ (6.4 million), and the 10.9 million Americans who watched the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals on sports cable channel ESPN on Monday night.
The total audience for ‘The Voice’ was also up on the 11.8 million who watched the contest finale in May.
NBC, which has been at the bottom of the four main US networks for years, decided to programme the contest twice a year, in the autumn and the spring — risking viewer burn-out in a crowded field of TV talent shows.
Simon Cowell’s ‘X Factor’ returns on Fox on Wednesday with new judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato, hoping to improve on last year’s ratings performance.
‘The Voice,’ with singers Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as judges, has been the brightest light in the NBC line-up since its debut in the spring of 2011.
More from Celebrity
More from Arts & Entertainment
Covering everything from entertainment and lifestyle
CANNES SPECIAL COVERAGE
-
Diamond necklace worth $2.6m missing at Cannes
Reuters
De Grisogono piece suspected stolen despite 80 bodyguards and other staff on duty
-
Gosling breaks Cannes’ heart
AP and Reuters
Actor apologises for missing the premiere Wednesday of gory film “Only God Forgives”
-
Susi Ganesh heads to Cannes with Shortcut Romeo
By Mythily Ramachandran, Special to tabloid!
Director remakes his own Tamil film for Bollywood
Most Popular in Entertainment
- UAE cinema listings: May 23-29
- Film review: Neram is a good time
- Swift disgusted by Gomez-Bieber kiss
- Native American actresses walk Cannes red carpet
- Gosling breaks Cannes’ heart
- Amanda Bynes arrested on marijuana charge
- Tsismis: Gerald Anderson, playboy no more?
- Review: Fast and Furious 6
- Susi Ganesh heads to Cannes with Shortcut Romeo
- Film review: Ethir Neechal
Latest from Entertainment
- Shruti Haasan might write for films
- Angel and Draco Malfoy team up for more drama
- Two sides of Cath Kidston
- Bipasha Basu on fashion and style
- Ranbir Kapoor not a social-networking fan
- SRK to promote Chennai Express during IPL final
- Lauren Gottlieb smitten with Salman Khan
- Travelling to space with DiCaprio for a cause
- Zeta-Jones returns home after treatment
- Warrant for Tim Dog, despite death reports
- Mary Blige faces $3.4 million federal tax lien
- Amanda Bynes arrested on marijuana charge
- E-mails show concern for Jackson’s ill-health
- Dabba wins at Cannes
- Jerry Lewis retains distaste for female comics
- Safwan Dahoul’s show on strife-torn Syria
- Austrian artist Philip Mueller’s solo exhibition
- Book review: The Yogic Manager
- Book review: “How Asia Works”
- Book review: “The Way of the Knife”
- Interview with Aminatta Forna
- Beatles’ lyrics headed for British Library
- Book review: Gill Hornby’s “The Hive”
- Book review: Jane Gardam’s ‘Last Friends’
- My new guitar hero
Entertainment Editor's choice
-
Beatles’ lyrics headed for British Library
Handwritten lyrics to Beatles’ classics “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “She Said She Said” and “In My Life” added to existing material in the library’s Treasures Gallery that already draws throngs
-
‘Idol’ winner rolling out debut album in July
Candice Glover spent more time on the show than she did on her debut album
-
Who topped this week’s US charts?
Vampire Weekend’s“Modern Vampires of the City” sold 134,000 copies in its first week, beating Demi Lovato to top of Billboard 200 chart
