Fall TV Ratings: 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Bests Its Opponents

It looks as if just about everyone who was looking forward to the debut of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." on ABC on Tuesday actually tuned in to the series' first episode. The show scored big in the ratings, easily outpacing its competition and setting a high bar for its continued success.

The hour-long comic-book drama drew 11.9 million total viewers, a figure that is, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the best ratings performance for a drama series debut since ABC's "V" in 2009. "Agents" handily beat its competition on the other broadcast networks, "NCIS" and "The Voice." The strong ratings didn't carry through to the rest of the night for ABC, though. "The Goldbergs" pulled in 9.2 million viewers in the slot after "Agents," "Trophy Wife" drew just 6.6 million at 9:30, and "Lucky 7" retained only 4.6 million viewers in the 10 pm slot.

On other networks, the ratings news was not very happy overall. Fox in particular was hard hit; "Dads," "The Mindy Project," "New Girl," and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" all saw declines in viewership from their premieres last week.

Whether or not "Agents" can continue to draw big audiences remains to be seen. The hype surrounding the series was largely a product of its tie-in with "The Avengers," but unlike that effects-laden action shoot-'em-up, "Agents" is a secret-agent procedural that relies on the machinations of covert quasi-governmental groups and complex conspiracies for its plot lines. That formula didn't bring a substantial audience to "Agents" creator Joss Whedon's last series, "Dollhouse," and it must be noted that Whedon has never created a commercially successful TV series that didn't have vampires in it.