Intelligence has the season's most-watched series premiere, but not in the right demo

By Caroline Siede | January 8, 2014 | 8:50pm

Aux Features TV

Intelligence officially had the most-watched new series premiere of the 2013-14 season, according to Entertainment Weekly. The CBS crime procedural starring Lost’s Josh Holloway benefited from its NCIS lead-in to pull in 16.6 million viewers for its Tuesday premiere—much higher than any other non-NCIS show that night, and soundly beating the night's other big premiere, ABC’s Killer Women, which averaged only 3.87 million viewers. However, the catch to all that success is that Intelligence somewhat underperformed in the key 18-49 demographic, pulling in a 2.4—a disappointing drop from NCIS’ 2.9.

Starting next week, Intelligence moves to Monday nights, and the lack of that NCIS lead-in will be the real test of its staying power. Despite lukewarm reviews, a CBS crime procedural starring an attractive bad boy with a heart of gold has every reason to succeed—even if those finicky 18-49 year olds can’t be bothered to tune in. Or perhaps Intelligence will be the show that finally brings children and grandparents together for some technologically enhanced crime fighting.