'The Bachelor' Sets New Season-Finale Low Monday Night

Deadline blames the annual "spring-forward" transition into Daylight Savings Time. I pray "The Bachelor" set an unpleasant precedent because the show might be approaching its eventual last legs.

My opinions aside, "Bachelor" Ben Flajnik is apparently kind of, sort of, if-he-can-keep-it-in-his-pants engaged after Monday night's two-hour "The Bachelor" season finale. Yay, him. ABC had probably just hoped the network's part in helping those two kooky kids find love wouldn't included NBC's "The Voice" giving the show a bad-baby spanking.

The NBC prime-time hit's next round of dueling contestants sucked in 14 million viewers and notched an impressive 5.1 adult demographic rating. By comparison, the first "Bachelor" finale to go head-to-head with "The Voice" only drew 8 million viewers and an 2.9 rating - a 36-percent drop off last season's finale number and the lowest-rated season finale in the show's history.

The wrap-up special "The Bachelor: After The Final Rose" didn't fair much better in its 10 PM ET/PT slot. The post-mortem kept the finale's 8 million viewers but actually improved to a 3.3 rating - which is still down 30 percent from the finale a year ago. That number might've been bolstered by NBC's struggling musical drama "Smash" dropping 11 percent to a 2.4 rating with 6 million viewers.

Likewise, over on FOX, a brand-new "Alcatraz" led in by a "House" repeat was also down 11 percent to a 1.6 rating from 4 million viewers.

As you can see from the trends on Yidio, "The Bachelor" finale came in as the #2 show of the day behind "The Walking Dead".