Ratings Report: ‘NCIS’ Goes Down Under and ‘Power’ Explores Its Roots

Broadcast: CBS expanded the NCIS franchise once again with the arrival of its new series, NCIS: Sydney. This latest series marks the first international spin-off for the franchise, featuring local Australian actors and producers. On December 5th, the series brought in an audience of 4.865 million in the P2+ demographic, with a rating of 1.54, and 443,000 in the P18-49 demographic, with a rating 0.34. Viewership remained consistent as the following week’s episode brought in 4.873 million viewers in the P2+ demographic, with a rating of 1.55, and 421,000 viewers in the P18-49 demographic, with a rating of 0.32. Set in Sydney, Australia, this series follows a team of special agents who investigate criminal activity involving American military and navy personnel, with each episode centered around a new case. NCIS: Sydney stars Olivia Swann (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, River Wild, Doctors), Todd Lasance (Without Remorse, Spartacus, True Spirit), and Sean Sagar (The Covenant, The Gentlemen, Our Girl).

Cable: On Starz, audiences can tune into the third season of Power Book III: Raising Kanan. The season three premiere aired on December 1st to an audience of 199,000 in the P2+ demographic, with a rating of 0.06, and 65,900 viewers in the P18-49 demographic, with a rating of 0.05. The following week saw each of these values decrease, with episode two bringing in 190,000 viewers in the P2+ demographic, with a rating of 0.06, and just 39,600 viewers in the P18-49 demographic, with a rating of 0.03. Power Book III is the second spin-off and first prequel to Power, an American crime drama that first premiered on Starz in 2014. Power Book III follows young Kanan (Mekai Curtis), the lead character from the original series, as he gets his start in the world of drug dealing. The series was created by Sascha Penn (Creed II, Survivor’s Remorse, Power) and produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson (Power, Escape Plan, Get Rich or Die Tryin’). Power Book III was renewed for a fourth season ahead of its season three premiere, demonstrating Starz’s confidence in its ever-expanding IP. The series stars Patina Miller (Madam Secretary, The Many Saints of Newark, Mercy Street), London Brown (Ballers, ASIA A, Real Talk), and Malcolm Mays (Them, The Day Shall Come, Snowfall).

Streaming: Criminal Code, a new crime drama from Brazil, is now streaming on Netflix. This series premiered on November 14th with the release of all eight episodes. Since then, Criminal Code spent four straight weeks on the Netflix Non-English Global Top Ten list. Between November 27th and December 3rd, this new series streamed 27.100 million hours, receiving 3.500 million views. Between December 4th and 10th, it streamed 15.300 hours and received 2.000 million views. Based on true events, Criminal Code follows a team of investigators from Brazil as they hunt down a group of criminals they believe are connected to several high-profile robberies throughout South America. The series stars Maeve Jinkings (Toll, Heartless, Duetto) and Rômulo Braga (Power Alley, The Intrusion, Charcoal). Holding an audience rating of 94%, Netflix already renewed the series for a second season.

South Korea: The pay-to-watch station tvN houses the new South Korean drama Maestra: Strings of Truth. This series premiered on December 9th with the second episode airing the following day. Together, these episodes averaged 1.512 million viewers. Episodes three and four aired the week after to an even larger audience, bringing in an average of 1.915 million viewers. This music-centric thriller follows a young, ambitious conductor who slowly learns hidden truths about the members of her orchestra while concealing secrets of her own. Maestra: Strings of Truth stars Lee Young-ae (A Wonderful Sight, Bring Me Home, Lady Vengeance) as the secretive conductor and Lee Moo-saeng (The Glory, Cleaning Up, Broker) as her ex-lover and investment tycoon. The series is a remake of a French drama from 2019.

On the free-to-watch station MBC, audiences can find the new fantasy romcom A Good Day to Be a Dog. First premiering back in October, episode nine aired on December 6th to an audience of 828,000. Episode ten aired the following week on December 13th to a slightly larger audience of 874,000. Based on a webtoon of the same name from 2017, A Good Day to Be a Dog follows a young woman whose family has been cursed for generations. This unique curse causes anyone in the family to turn into a dog for six hours at midnight if they kiss another person; the transformation repeats every night until they kiss the same person while in dog form. This presents a massive problem for Han Hae-ma after she kisses a man who has a deep fear of dogs. This lighthearted drama stars Park Gyu-young (Sweet Home, The Devil Judge, The Third Charm) and Cha Eun-woo (Decibel, True Beauty, Soul Plate).

South Africa: November proved to be a notably weaker month for ratings in South Africa, with many of the nation’s hit series experiencing a drop in viewership. Uzalo remains one of the most popular series on SABC1 despite losing nearly a million viewers, lowering its average to 5.254 million. Generations: The Legacy outperformed Skeem Saam for the second straight month; however, both series brought in smaller audiences, averaging 4.161 million and 3.736 million, respectively. SABC2 experienced a similar loss in viewership, with Muvhango dropping to an average of 1.288 million viewers an episode and 7de Laan dropping to just 902,000 viewers an episode. This downward trend extended to eTV as well, with the average viewership for Scandal dropping to 4.911 million and House of Zwide to 4.384 million. On DSTV, The River was one of the few series to see an increase in viewership, rising to an average of 767,000 viewers. With Gomora officially ending its run in October, there were no new episodes in November.

United Kingdom: Coronation Street on ITV1 performed in line with previous weeks, once again bringing in a larger audience than its competition. Between November 27th and December 3rd, this longest running U.K. drama brought in an average of 4.571 million viewers across its three new episodes. Fellow ITV1 drama, Emmerdale, remains close behind, averaging 4.077 million viewers across its five new episodes. The BBC1 drama EastEnders continues to lag behind its ITV1 rivals, averaging 3.685 million viewers across its four new episodes. E4’s less popular drama Hollyoaks saw its viewership rise once again, averaging 341,000 across its five new episodes. The following week demonstrated consistent viewership for each of these series. Between December 4th and December 10th, Coronation Street averaged 4.609 million viewers per episode. Emmerdale saw an average of 4.001 million viewers an episode while EastEnders averaged 3.739 million viewers an episode.