Fox, “Queen Latifah” score in ratings

Sleepy Hollow, Dads, and Brooklyn get ample sampling; Queen Latifah scores well in her premiere

With the new fall season only a few days away, a few shows jumped the gun with premieres this week, while summer series wrap up their runs:

– Despite going up against Monday Night Football and Dancing With The Stars, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow debuted nicely Monday night with 10.1 million viewers and a 3.5/9 in the adult 18-49 demo, increasing 59 percent from its Bones lead-in. DWTS‘ season premiere also registered, with 16 million viewers and a 3.1/9 adult demo rating/share, up from its premiere last year.

NBC’s inane Million Second Quiz, with host Rahm Seacrest – er, I mean Ryan Seacrest, continue to dud with a 1.0/3, down from a 1.9 for its premiere last Monday. CBS’ Under The Dome concluded its first season with a 2.8/8 and 12 million viewers. Dome had been renewed for a second season last summer.

– Tuesday night: Fox won the night in total viewers and adults 18-49 with its sitcom premieres. The heavily panned (and future T Dog Media TV Hall Of Shame inductee) Dads (19 Metacritic score, 0 % Rotten Tomatoes score) was sampled with a 2.2 adult demo rating, while the critically-praised Brooklyn Nine-Nine increased 18 percent from Dads with a 2.6 rating. While these numbers are respectable, the real test comes next week when the other networks roll out their fresh fare.

Next up was the third-season premiere of New Girl, with a 2.9/8, up 4 percent from last year’s season premiere. Look for Twentieth to start selling New Girl into off-network syndication soon, as this could be the most anticipated rollout in some time (what are they waiting for?) The Mindy Project followed with a 1.9/5, down 21 percent from its premiere a year ago, but keep in mind Mindy’s season premiere was made available on Hulu and Fox.com in advance. After seeing the first ten episodes or so, I just don’t understand the appeal of Mindy; this must be the most overrated sitcom on the air. To put it more bluntly, trying to explain the appeal of The Mindy Project is like trying to explain why the Cubs still draw fans when the team has 80 losses.

As for the rest: Million Second Quiz (1.1); America’s Got Talent (2.5);  and a rare movie in network prime time, IronMan 2 (1.2).

– Turning to the world of syndication, The Queen Latifah Show debuted Monday to strong numbers with a household 1.7/5, with a 0.9/5 in the key in the 25-54 female demo, drawing more than last week’s premieres of Bethenny and The Test. Latifah was up 31 percent from year-ago time period and 21 percent from lead-in averages. Latifah’s best showings were in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Dallas (Chicago numbers, where Latifah airs on two stations, were not available.)

On Wednesday, Queen Latifah showcased The Soul Children of Chicago choir on her show. Not only she visited the choir here in the Windy City, she flew them out to Los Angeles to perform with her at the Hollywood Bowl – a wonderful and nice gesture by Ms. Dana Owens.

As for Arsenio Hall, his ratings for his late-night talker remained strong as the program continues to improve year-ago TP numbers and lead-in. Here in Chicago, Arsenio had a 2.5/5 household number his first week, up 56 percent over the year-ago time period rating, ahead of other entertainment programming in the market. On Monday, Arsenio did drop to a series low 0.9 rating nationally; however, Arsenio was delayed in Chicago for more than an hour due to a Cubs overrun.