New Season of 'The Voice' Topples Competition with Highest Ratings

'The Voice' cemented its status as television's premier reality competition show, according to the NY Times.

The reality singing contest which airs on NBC got off to a strong start in its newest season which was supported by preliminary ratings figures. The other rosy news for NBC was the initial showing of the network's much-talked-about new crime drama, "The Blacklist."

 The show, which stars James Spader, posted hit-level numbers for its premiere, averaging more than 12 million viewers and a booming 3.8 rating in the category NBC sells to advertisers, viewers from the ages of 18 to 49. Even accounting for a slight decline later when official national numbers arrive - because "Blacklist" benefited in its first half-hour Monday from a brief run over from "The Voice" - the performance was among the best in recent seasons for a new drama.

NBC promoted its overall supremacy Monday in the 18-49 competition. It topped its nearest competitor, CBS, by 70 percent with those viewers, which NBC research reported was the biggest margin for any network on a premiere-week Monday since Nielsen Research introduced its People-Meter system in the 1980s.

The next best ratings story from night 1 of the new season was how well Fox's new drama "Sleepy Hollow" performed in its second week, when it had to face full competition on three other networks. The gothic series involving a reincarnated Ichabod Crane beat everything but "The Voice" in the 9 p.m. hour in that 18-49 competition, including the holdover hits "Two Broke Girls" on CBS and "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC.

"The Voice" remains NBC's most potent weapon (after "Sunday Night Football") and performed better in its premiere this season that it did a year ago, perhaps reflecting interest in the return to the original judging foursome, with Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green back to join Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.