As the drama on "The Bachelor" ramps up, so do the ratings for the winter love competition. Monday night proved to be another bonanza for the show as it took advantage of weak scheduling lineups across the television to secure some of the best numbers seen in 2017 so far; Nick's quest for love is ABC's quest for advertising dollars and it's paying off for both.
Ratings gold for ABC
Most Monday night shows improved from last week to this week, simply because the college football championship game wasn't being played simultaneously this week. No show saw the ratings "The Bachelor" did on Monday night, though.
According to Nielsen's overnight metric, the show scored a 2.3 in the valuable 18-49 demographic. Not only is that the best viewership of the night, but it's also the best viewership of the season for the reality dating show.
The show also received the top score in the 18-34 demographic with a 2.4 value. The next four shows of the night were all CBS productions, led by "Kevin Can Wait" and "Man with a Plan." The next best ABC show was "Big Fan," which scored a decent 1.0 score. No show came within half a full point in the 18-49 ratings, showing just how much of a behemoth "The Bachelor" is on Monday nights.
Analyzing the ratings for 'The Bachelor'
In reality shows that start off with a huge chunk of contestants before paring down, sometimes the ratings suffer as time goes on.
People either become fatigued by seeing the same people do the same thing every week, or the humor of the show comes early on. While this isn't necessarily the case with "The Bachelor," it was for other reality shows such as "American Idol," where people tuned into the auditions and then tuned out until the final stages.
The fact that this ratings dip hasn't occurred for "The Bachelor" is a positive signal to network executives that the fan base for the show is strong.
Even though this season's hero, Nick, isn't always the most interesting charmer, it helps to have one of the show's best villains in several seasons in Corinne. Last night's episode also included the Backstreet Boys, so that may have provided a boost to the show.
