Underdog NBC Beat CBS in the Ratings, Thanks to 'The Voice'

Fall TV officially started last night, and the numbers are looking pretty good for NBC, the network that exists solely to show The Voice. They even beat top-network CBS. CBS!

And we're off! Fall TV officially started last night, and the numbers are looking pretty good for NBC, the network that exists solely to show The Voice. They even beat top-network CBS among the 18-to-49 year olds that advertisers crave like Christina Aguilera craves holes in her fishnets. CBS!

NBC canceled basically everything last season and we weren't very optimistic about their 2013-14 slate. But maybe we just underestimated the power of The Voice. Blake, Adam, Christina and Cee Lo (no hyphen) were reunited last night and over 14 million people tuned in for the freshly minted Emmy winner. It narrowly beat Dancing with the Stars, but sound defeated CBS, where the 9 million people who still care about how Ted met the mother got two episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

The networks then faced off at 10, when NBC's James Spader The Blacklist aired against CBS' heavily promoted Hostages. Though neither show had as many viewers as Castle (over 13 million!), The Blacklist came in second with 12.6 million, 5 million more than Hostages. Sorry CBS, but that's embarrassing. You have Toni Collette and Dylan McDermottMulroney and this is the best you can do?

Meanwhile, Anna Faris's Mom had 7.9 million people from tuning in to the premiere, which would be good anywhere but CBS. But CBS isn't quaking in its boots. Today's Tuesday, and what's more reliable than two straight hours of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles? CBS will be fine. Enjoy it while you can, NBC.