NBC’s ‘Lincoln Rhyme’ Debut Collects Enough Viewers to Beat WWE’s ‘SmackDown,’ But Not ‘Hawaii Five-0’

NBC’s “Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector” series launched on Friday, when it did fairly well for the time slot. Unfortunately, it was not enough to overcome Fox’s “WWE SmackDown” in the key demo or take down CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0” in any key metric.

Fox was first in ratings with a 0.8 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and fourth in total viewers with an average of 2.5 million, according to preliminary numbers. Those numbers were put up by Fox’s pro-wrestling series, which fills up the network’s Friday night primetime block.

CBS and NBC tied for second in ratings, both with a 0.7. CBS was first in total viewers with 7.5 million; NBC was second with 4.2 million.

For CBS, “Hawaii Five-0” at 8 p.m. scored a 0.8 and 7.6 million viewers. At 9, “Magnum PI” received a 0.7 and 7.1 million viewers. “Blue Bloods” at 10 had a 0.7 and 7.9 million viewers.

For NBC, “Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector” at 8 took a 0.6 and 4.4 million viewers. “Dateline” at 9 p.m. earned a 0.7 and 4.1 million viewers.

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ABC was fourth in ratings with a 0.6 and third in viewers with 3.1 million. Following repeats of “American Housewife” and “Fresh Off the Boat,” at 10 p.m. “20/20” closed the night with a 0.6 and 3.2 million viewers.

The CW got a 0.2 rating and 895,000 viewers for the evening, airing only repeats.

Ratings for the Spanish-language broadcast networks Univision and Telemundo were not available at the time of publication.

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