‘The Following’ debut slays solid ratings

Series Clip: ‘The Following’ by WSJ_Live

On Monday night, the premiere episode of Fox’s new series ‘the Following’ has generated a great number of viewers.

The Kevin Bacon starred serial killer thriller received 3.2 rating among adult viewers aged between 18 and 49. Total 10.4 million viewers enjoyed the first episode of the series. The rating and viewers of ‘Alcatraz’, the series that lasted for a short time during the same slot last year, were slightly more than this new series.

However, much of the media buzzes surrounding the show have been about the use of graphic violence in it. Discussions have been going on about if the violence is too much or if the timing is not right just in the wake of school shooting incident in Connecticut.

However, the number of viewers proved that Fox’s audience was not scared of violence. They were more scared of the ‘The Mob Doctor’, which was aired last fall at the same slot with 1.5 rating.

However, this new series has marketable stars like James Purefoy and Kevin Bacon along with a lot more promotion. ‘The Following’ has actually brought down CBS’s drama series ‘Elementary’ to the second position based on the rating received at the premiere episode.

In addition, the success of ‘The Following’ increased the viewers of the ‘Bones’ too. The ‘Bones’ aired just before the new series and this proximity has increased its viewers by 10%.

NBC’s ‘Biggest Loser’ has not experienced any boost or decline but the channel’s another drama called ‘Deception’ lost 19% viewers. The good thing is that the ‘Biggest Loser’ has maintained a steady rating for three weeks despite the rating boost of this new cycle’s premiere.

ABC’s two shows ‘Castle’ and ‘the Bachelor’ received slightly high ratings, with Bachelor getting the highest rating of the season. On the other hand, the comedy block of the CBS was a bit down across the board.

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