'Almost Human' Monday ratings: Decent, but...

Ratings for the second episode of Fox’s Almost Human were decent, yet didn’t quite compute as well as one might have hoped.

A decline in the numbers was wholly expected since Sunday’s premiere episode had a big football-driven lead-in. Even so, the robot-cop drama’s regular time slot debut last night was pretty modest for the second episode of a heavily hyped show: Almost Human had 6.6 million viewers and a 2.2 adults 18-49 rating, down 29 percent from its premiere (and that’s despite serving up the sexbots). It’s also lower than companion series Sleepy Hollow, (a steady 2.5) which has been on the air for many weeks. Basically, this is a pretty similar ratings to Bones in this slot (which isn’t to knock Bones, but that procedural drama has been on the air for nine seasons and Almost Human is a shiny new drama that you would hope might notably improve things).

To put this performance in perspective yet ANOTHER way: If Almost Human settled into this rating midway through the season, that’s cool, but it’s worrisome that this is where the show is starting.

I do expect Almost Human to see pretty huge DVR gain, however. Sci-fi shows typically do, and the previous episode was just the night before, and any football fans sampling on Sunday were probably watching Monday Night Football on ESPN. Moreover, the reader comments on the show have been pretty positive so far. What did you think of the second episode of Almost Human? Abort, Retry, Fail?

Elsewhere: CBS’ lineup was remarkably steady, except Hostages, which slipped 9 percent to its series low. NBC’s The Voice was down 11 percent to a fall Monday low. ABC’s early numbers are potentially inaccurate due to NFL pre-emption. CW’s Hart of Dixie was steady, while Beauty and the Beast tied its series low. Full chart: