FOX announced “Sleepy Hollow,” last spring without much fanfare, but when the first episode of the new mystery-adventure drama aired Monday night, it garnered one of the strongest ratings for any new series in recent history.
The series, described as a “modern-day retelling” of the 1820 short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” by Washington Irving, scored big in the ratings on Monday, pulling in 10.1 million viewers and a 3.5 rating among viewers aged between 18 and 49.
Aside from “Monday Night Football,” those were the best numbers of the night and was a spectacular improvement for Fox, which had disastrous results on Monday nights at 9 p.m. last fall with the series “The Mob Doctor.”
This was a good start for a show with an off-the-cuff premise, but will viewers stay interested? Some of these gimmicky shows do well in their initial premieres and then quickly drop off as the series progresses, because the writing and other aspects don’t come together quite so well.
Also because of its early start, the competition was weaker than what “Sleepy Hollow” will ultimately have to go up against, especially “The Voice” on NBC and the CBS comedy lineup, all of which start next Monday.
The series has received mixed reviews for its shaky story line and disjointed dialogue, but most critics agree it was a fun experience So we’ll have to wait and see how things work out for Detective Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie ) and old Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison).
“Sleepy Hollow” airs on FOX at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on Mondays.
