The Question, Sunday 1/19/14: Will NFC Championship Viewers Watch The Following Program?

Last year, The Following was the show that started broadcast TV's "limited series" craze, signing up major film actor Kevin Bacon with the promise that the seasons would be short enough to give him scheduling flexibility. And it overcame mixed-to-negative reviews to become the 2012-13 regular season's biggest new series. Though its audience faded considerably through the season, it finished on a couple of upticks, and it should have a good opportunity to start off season two positively since it leads out of the NFL's huge NFC Championship Game. Will NFC Championship viewers watch The Following program? That's The Question for Sunday, January 19, 2014.

The Following Last Season	Post-Championship Game Shows
3.2 (premiere, 1/21/13) 2.63 (average) 2.7 (finale, 4/29/13)	3.5 (Hawaii Five-0, 1/20/13, game 16.8) 7.9 (American Idol, 1/22/12, game 21.4) 5.6 (Hawaii Five-0, 1/23/11, game 19.7) 4.6 (The Mentalist, 1/18/09, game 14.7) 4.7 (Without a Trace, 1/21/07, game 17.6) 9.2 (Numb3rs preview, 1/23/05, game 17.6)

The lead-in game is between Seattle and San Francisco. It probably features the two best NFC teams, and it's projected to be pretty close, but the fact that it's two West Coast teams may damage the casual tune-in where most of the population lies.

I think this outrates last year's Hawaii Five-0 because Fox is much more invested in this show from a promotional standpoint than CBS was with Five-0 at this time last year. Last year's Five-0 was pretty much just another episode in the middle of the season and was promoted as such. Fox is advertising this second season premiere more aggressively. However, The Following's subject matter may not be the best fit with the family viewing event.

Over/Under: 4.15.

THIS GAME CLOSES AT A SPECIAL TIME: SUNDAY (1/19) AT 6:00 PM ET. If editing your pick, please leave a separate comment.