TV Ratings: Revolution beats Castle and Hawaii Five-0 in first battle on September 24th, 2012

In its second week, NBC’s Revolution faced season premieres of Castle and Hawaii Five-0. It beat both in the Adult 18-49 ratings. There was a 16% loss of Live + SD audience in that demo from its debut last week, but it definitely could have been worse and many thought it might be. The median age went down a tad. So, its losses for older audiences were a little bit higher.

Meanwhile, the hype about Castle and Beckett becoming an item did not produce a big ratings bump. It was actually down 35% in the key demo, but 21% for all viewers. The median age went up a few years and the percentage of male viewers went down. Thus, they probably kept more of their older female viewers than other demographics. In fact, 43% of Castle’s audience is women aged 55 or older. If you are a young dude watching Castle, you’re in the real Cougartown.

It’s notable that the Castle premiere didn’t even match last year’s finale number of 2.45.

Hawaii Five-0 seemed to take an even harder hit with a 42% decline compared to last year. It’s median age rose about three years.

We should acknowledge that all of these 10PM shows may regain some viewers when the Live + 7 ratings come through. A person has to watch by 3AM to count in the “same day” ratings. When so many shows compete, some shows are bound to get pushed to another day.

Other highlights:

• Fox’s Mob Doctor dropped to a sad 1.3 A18-49 rating from a 1.5 last week.
• CBS’s Partners scored a 2.4 A18-49 rating. That wouldn’t be bad except that it’s on CBS and it lost a significant 3.6 How I Met Your Mother lead-in and the show that came after it rebounded to a 3.7.
• NBC’s The Voice was the top-rated A18-49 show of the night—4.4.