Tuesday night was the premiere of a number of new and returning series. Zooey Deschanel, who some remember as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s “it” girl from (500) Days of Summer or the Will Ferrell comedy Elf (or maybe from her music career as the “she” in She & Him), well her new comedy New Girl premiered to 10.1 million total viewers as the lead out program to Glee.
What’s more impressive is that Glee‘s premiere was 8.7 million. The norm is to see a lead-in program give the program following a boost in viewership but not a number that surpasses the total number of viewers of the lead-in.
Gleeks will be sad to know that this season premiere was a 30% drop in viewership from a year ago.
CBS, the reigning king of the police/investigative procedural, saw across the board gains. NCIS drew 19.5 million (up 3% from its previous premiere), NCIS: LA did 16.7 mil (up 14%), and the 14 million who tuned in to the series premiere of Poppy Montgomery’s Unforgettable was 9% better than last year’s time-slot filler The Good Wife.
