Which Freshman Drama Is Waaay Down in the Ratings?

Josh Holloway's new series Intelligence suffered a big hit after moving to its new night, losing NCIS as a lead-in and over half of its viewership in the process

As Sawyer would say, son of a bitch!

Lost fan favorite Josh Holloway made his return to TV last week in CBS' new drama Intelligence, and its series premiere brought in huge ratings: 16.5 million viewers tuned in, which made it season's most watched debut yet. Yay, right?

Well, Intelligence's second episode, which aired Monday night, lost more than half of those viewers, attracting just 6.1 million viewers. And in the all-important adults 18-49 demo, the series slipped from a 2.4 rating to a 1.1. Yikes, right?

So what the heck happened?!

We learned just how much power NCIS has, that's what.

CBS slotted Intelligence's premiere right after NCIS, TV's highest rated show, on a Tuesday, before moving it to its regular night, Monday, on Jan. 13. On the night of its premiere, NCIS gave Intelligence a huge lead in push, 20 million viewers to be exact, which was its largest audience of the season so far. Intelligence's regular lead in, Mom, brought in 8.5 million viewers and 2.1 demo rating.

So does this mean most of NCIS' audience just left their TVs on? Or did they just decide to check back in with James Spader on The Blacklist, which returned to NBC on Monday night with 9.1 million viewers and a 2.5 demo rating. Though those numbers are down, The Blacklist still easily topped Holloway & Co. in both total viewers and the demo.

Intelligence airs Monday at 10 p.m. on CBS.