The Question, Thursday 2/5/15: How Many Viewers Pledge Allegiance to NBC Thursday?

Last week, I was uncertain whether to make a Question for this night about just NBC or about the showdown between Scandal and The Blacklist. I decided to leave it up to what The Blacklist's ratings were after the Super Bowl; if it did decently or better, then Scandal vs. The Blacklist could be hugely intriguing. Unfortunately, The Blacklist was a post-Super Bowl disappointment, posting the worst ratings for a lead-out starting before 11:00 (8.4) in recent memory. To me, that has made this night much more about NBC just doing well by its own standards than about NBC actually aspiring to knock off ABC. Maybe The Blacklist can still be a world-beater, but the network would probably take something less than that if offered right now. How many viewers pledge Allegiance to NBC Thursday? That's The Question for Thursday, February 5, 2015.

The Blacklist This Season

3.5 (premiere, 9/22/14, -8% year-to-year) 2.5 (fall finale) 2.69 (fall average, -15% year-to-year vs. first 8 eps) 3.71 (average for first 8 eps of lead-in The Voice) 8.4 (post-Super Bowl airing, 2/1/15)

As some pointed out last week, this is largely a Blacklist-based Question, as the pilot of Allegiance at 10/9c can probably be expected to post reliably bland retention. But that bland retention could give Allegiance a shot at success if The Blacklist pops enough. How much will it pop? Making a real run back at the 3's seems like a big ask in a tough timeslot with no real lead-in. But this show has proven (most notably for the 3.5 fall premiere) that it can benefit from a promotional blitz.

The Blacklist PLUS Allegiance Over/Under: 4.75.

No entries accepted after 6:00am ET the morning after the date in the headline. If editing your pick, please leave a separate comment. All results based on final ratings rounded to the nearest tenth.