Smash and Burn! Season Two Premiere Disappoints in Ratings

Eek! Though expectations were high for the return of NBC’s Broadway soap Smash, which premiered its second season on February 5, it appears that people didn’t so much “hate-watch” the show as they did “not watch” it.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the season opener was down a whopping 71 percent from its debut last February. The splashy primetime series, which NBC has thrown tons of attention behind in the months leading up to its re-imagined season premiere, scored an average 1.1 rating with adults 18-49, for a total of about 4.5 million viewers. By the end of Smash’s last half hour (of the two hour premiere), the rating had dropped to 1.0.

What beat Smash? More episodes of TV ratings titans NCIS and NCIS: LA. Maybe next week, Smash should take a page from the procedural playbook and throw some criminal intrigue into the series. Ellis in a bodybag, anyone?

There is something of a silver lining, though. Despite the poor ratings, two of the tunes from last night's episode still managed to crack the iTunes Top 100. Jeremy Jordan's "Broadway, Here I Come" (written by theater composer Joe Iconis) and Katharine McPhee's rendition of Pasek and Paul's "Caught In the Storm" currently hold the 26th and 46th spot, respectively, on the Pop charts. At least if people aren't watching, they're listening!

In case you didn't catch the episode, check out all of the musical numbers from the season premiere, which Broadway.com has so kindly ranked for your viewing pleasure.