The Question, Tuesday 3/26/13: How Far Will Ratings Go On Up With The Voice Back?

The last time we did a The Question for Go On, it was holding all of its  strong premiere number and seemed like a potential breakthrough for comedy-challenged NBC. In the subsequent two months, it dropped considerably against full broadcast competition, but it settled at a post-Voice level that still had some calling it a "modest success."  Four months of Voicelessness later, it's become a total laughingstock, barely clinging to NBC bubble-worthy ratings. Tonight it gets The Voice back, but only for one week. How far will ratings Go On up with The Voice back? That's The Question for Tuesday, March 26, 2013.

Go On This Season	The Voice Premiere on Monday
2.2 -> 2.1 -> 2.5 -> 2.4 (last fall eps) 1.5 (first ep w/o Voice, 1/8/13) 1.1 -> 1.1 -> 1.1 -> 1.0 (last four eps)	4.7 (Monday 3/25/13)

The quick and dirty Go On narrative is that it was a "modest success" in the fall and then instantly collapsed without The Voice. Indeed, there was a great deal of that, and though I thought that was coming, I was a bit surprised at the extent to which it happened. But if you look at the True2 numbers, those first two weeks were close to in line with what had become the show's post-Voice norm in October and November.

What's been perhaps even more disheartening is the drops that have happened since the beginning of the sans Voice run, from a 1.5 on winter premiere night (and a 1.7 the second week!) all the way to a 1.0 last week. Yeah, some of that may be connected to lower viewing and the collapse of Off Their Rockers, but it seems clear now that this is a Truly weaker show than the one that was airing after The Voice in the fall. I give it a shot to get back to 2.0 tonight because its lead-in will be just that huge, but returning to its normal low-2's fall level is a big ask.

Over/Under: 1.95.

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