Ratings Update Feb. 6th: NBC's Voice accelerates ratings losses for Alcatraz

TV viewing habits can be very consistent once a TV season is established. Very rarely is the pecking order of the networks against one another changed. But, once in a while, something comes along that changes the landscape and its pretty exciting if you are a ratings geek like me.

Last night, Monday February 6th, NBC actually won the night with the return of The Voice and the much promoted premiere of Smash.

One of the outcomes of this were lower ratings for Fox. We've been tracking Alcatraz and it took a hit, going from last week's 2.8 to this week's 2.3. It's now in the same territory as Terra Nova ended up in. Will Fox renew either one of these shows?

There may be some interest in Castle, given we are now reviewing that show. Opposite Smash--and its 3.82 A18-49 rating--Castle pulled a 2.01 rating. That's actually not much lower than the 2.12 rating the show got the last time it had a new episode. So, wherever those Smash viewers came from, a lot of them weren't stolen from Castle.

Like most procedurals, Castle skews pretty old. It had a median age of 58 last night. Hawaii 5-0 was a median age of 55. Smash was the younger option at 49. Given H5-0 only loss a tenth of a rating point, the viewers for Smash came from "somewhere else".