NCIS ratings are in for first episode with Parker leading the team

NCIS ratings are in for the new episode that aired this week, giving a look at viewership numbers for the first night where Alden Parker was in charge of Gibbs’ former team.

The new NCIS episode was called False Start and it dealt with the death of a Navy officer who coached elite athletes in his spare time.

A lot of the episode focused on new NCIS Special Agent Alden Parker (played by Gary Cole) getting comfortable leading the team. His leadership methods were quite different, with the writers playing up the humor of how laid back he is compared to Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

NCIS fans had a while to prepare for this episode, as it had been hinted at for several weeks that Parker would be taking Gibbs’ job. Though he can never really truly replace Gibbs, it was also going to be interesting to see what the NCIS ratings looked like for the first Parker-led episode.

NCIS ratings for False Start

The NCIS ratings for Season 19, Episode 6 saw the show fall in nearly every measurable live viewership number. That’s a bad sign for the longevity of the show, but it’s also important to remember that this new episode came after the show took a short Fall 2021 hiatus.

But let’s start with the good news here. NCIS was the most-watched show on television for the night of Monday, November 1. The show easily outpaced Dancing With the Stars (ABC), The Big Leap (FOX), and The Voice (NBC) when it comes to total live viewers. That’s a really good thing.

Taking a deeper dive into the numbers, an estimated 7.279 million viewers tuned in live for NCIS Season 19, Episode 6. It was the only show on any network to surpass seven million live viewers on Monday night. The problem, though, was that this was the least-watched NCIS episode of Fall 2021.

Will there be an NCIS Season 20 with these numbers?

If NCIS can stay above seven million viewers that tune in live every Monday night, then it seems like that would make it worth the effort for CBS to renew the show for another full season. Making it to NCIS Season 20 would open a lot of doors, including a few for former cast members who could return for a curtain call.

It’s important to also remember that millions of people are tuning in to watch the new episodes of NCIS later in the week through OnDemand or on a DVR. Those numbers are reported a bit later, and it tends to push the show north of 10 million total viewers each week.

What might be concerning to CBS is that the ratings for viewers aged 18-49 have dipped again. That’s the range that a lot of TV advertisers look at and NCIS Season 19 is struggling to bring in the younger demographic.

Earlier this week, there were also some NCIS rumors about Wilmer Valderrama leaving the show. He plays Agent Nick Torres on the NCIS cast and he has been one of the stars for a few years now. His company is bringing a new show to CBS soon, so some NCIS fans were worried he could leave the show to focus on it. He hasn’t made any announcements about leaving, but it’s something fans will be thinking about.

NCIS airs Mondays at 9/8c on CBS.

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