Ratings: The Voice Returns Lower; Katie Bows Big

The Season 3 premiere of The Voice easily topped Monday, but also posted the series' lowest-rated premiere ever.
The two-hour telecast, the show's first in the fall, was predictably down from its Super Bowl-boosted Season 2 premiere, averaging 12 million viewers and a 4.1 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic — dropping 39 percent and 25 percent, respectively. The episode also took a 15 percent dip from last season's Monday night average.

Check out our recap of The Voice

A special preview of NBC's The New Normal followed with 7 million viewers and a 2.5 rating. The show moves to its regular timeslot Tuesday at 9:30/8:30c.Monday's season finales of ABC's Bachelor Pad (4.3 million, 1.3), and Fox's Hell's Kitchen (6.2 million, 2.5) and MasterChef (6.4 million, 2.6) were down from their previous closers.Meanwhile, on daytime, Katie Couric's new syndicated talk show pulled in a 2.8 rating Monday, becoming the best daytime premiere since the 2002 debut of Dr. Phil. Katie's premiere rating dwarfs that of fellow daytime newbies Steve Harvey (1.5), which bowed last week, The Jeff Probst Show (1.0) and The Ricki Lake Show (0.8).