Monday Night TV Premieres Including ‘Gotham’ And ‘Sleepy Hollow’ By The Numbers

Monday night was a big night for fall TV and it kicked off the 2014 TV season with high ratings. Which shows did the best and which ones fell short? Hint: Gotham lived up to its hype.

On Sept. 22, Gotham premiered, Sleepy Hollow returned for its sophomore season and The Blacklist kicked off its second season. Dancing with the Stars, on the other hand, returned for its 19th season. According to TV Line, The Big Bang Theory, which returned for its eighth season, started out with a bang.

"The Big Bang Theory's season opening double-pump dominated the night with 18.1 million total viewers and a 5.4 demo rating (per finals) — up from its May finale and matching its year-ago, Thursday premiere," TV Line reported.

The highly anticipated Fox show Gotham lived up to its potential with 8.2 million viewers for its Monday night debut. This strong start gave Fox its greatest numbers since its launch of Prison Break in 2005. In other Fox news, "Sleepy Hollow followed with 5.5 mil/2.0, down from both its year-ago debut (10 mil/3.5) and its January finale (6.9 mil/2.3), but it should be noted that this show's a big DVR gainer," TV Line wrote.

According to Zap2It, the second highest viewers (Big Bang Theory was first) was 12.95 million live viewers for The Voice, which kicked off its seventh season on NBC. ABC's Dancing with the Stars was a strong third with 12.76 live viewers. The lowest show for Monday night was CW's Whose Line is it Anyway, which only received 0.74 million viewers.

As for NBC's top drama, The Blacklist (which returned for its sophomore season yesterday) it had 12.3 million viewers. The show "was off 10 percent from its season 1 premiere, yet scored its second-best demo rating ever," according to TV Line.

To round out Monday night's TV ratings, America's Next Top Model had 0.78 million viewers, CBS' Scorpion had 13.83 million, ABC's Forever brought in 8.59 million and CBS' Under the Dome ended with 7.52 million viewers.

This week Nashville, The Goldbergs, Modern Family and The Middle all premiere on Wednesday. Additional shows such as Revenge, Once Upon A Time and Awkward also return this week for their new seasons.

Photo: Gotham's Facebook