Agents in Trouble?: Ratings Sink for 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'

After boasting the highest-rated debut of TV's new fall season, "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." took a big ratings hit in its second week. The show's second episode lost a third of its audience compared to the premiere episode, and it managed to win only third place in its time slot.

The producers of "S.H.I.E.L.D." had gone out of their way to downplay the connection between the series and "The Avengers," warning viewers that "S.H.I.E.L.D." was going to be very much a separate entity. Still, it's likely that much of the premiere's audience tuned in because of the series' connection to the hit film and the involvement of "Avengers" director Joss Whedon as a producer.

But "S.H.I.E.L.D." is turning out to be a secret-agent procedural, an entirely different animal from the explosive action of "The Avengers," and superheroes are virtually nonexistent in the series. In an attempt to keep a tenuous connection to the film—and perhaps slow the exodus of "Avengers" fans long enough for them to get hooked on the show—the series offered a brief cameo by Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury character this week; the ploy looked even more gratuitous given that the cameo came at the very end of the episode, and ABC took to social media in advance to let everyone know that they needed to watch the entire episode in order to catch a glimpse of Jackson.

Worse, the episode got lukewarm reviews from critics—The Hollywood Reporter's Marc Bernardin says that the show "will have to work to be more than a place where you might see a movie star"—making it seem increasingly unlikely that the series is going to retain a big audience.

This week's episode of "S.H.I.E.L.D." drew 8.4 million total viewers. In the same time slot, NBC's "The Voice" got 14.2 million viewers, and CBS's "NCIS," which featured the last appearance of Cote de Pablo, pulled in 19.3 million total viewers (although it lost to "The Voice" in the 18-49 demographic).